Of Crows and Misfortune
by WriterRay
Summary: Preferring machines to the family business, Thalia Wolfstien kept a semi quiet life as a mechanic's apprentice. But when a debt is to be payed and bitter revenge to be reaped, Thalia and her family are forced to bear their fangs and fly at the King and his men.
1. One

_A murder of crows:_

_"One for malice,_

_Two for mirth,_

_Three for a funeral, _

_Four for birth,_

_Five for silver,_

_Seven for a story that should never be told,_

_Eight for heaven,_

_Nine for hell,_

_Ten to the devil where he may dwell."_

* * *

"The Mechanic."

* * *

The shop looked like any other civilian store on the front. At first glance it was a sweets shop. With its chipping wood, squeaky hinges, and lightly painted shutters, there was nothing suspicious about it. The pastries were homemade and subpar, the coffee was freshly brewed and a bit burnt (depending on who roasted the beans), and the tea was just like any other. The staff was cheery and as sweet as their pastries. And there were dozens of shops in the bustling town. It blended in with the other coffee, tea, and sweet shop. But mothers would hold their insisting children a little tighter when they strolled by. Chills would go down the spines of the customers as they sipped their drinks and ate their treats, even when the door was propped open to welcome the fresh winds of spring. Even the flowers seemed to wilt as soon as they were carried inside.

But nobody seemed to care. They shook off the strange chills, the prickling of their skin, the shadowy door to the side of the shop that everyone unconsciously avoided. Where no one entered or exited. After all, far more peculiar things have happened near the quaint village. Bone chilling howls could be heard from the mountains, where the military's Scouts resided. The Earth would tremor under their feet.

Peculiar indeed. But even humanity's bravest soldiers didn't give the shop a second glance and walked briskly past the inviting shop.

Until now.

* * *

They hung like willow trees.

Artificial limbs dangling from hooks embedded in the wooden ceiling glinted eerily in the soft artificial light generated by the single bulb in the middle of the forest of metal. The scent of freshly baked goods wafted from the crack in the door leading to the bakery, trying desperately to push away the heavy odor of grease that hung in the air.

Bolts, wrenches, slats of metal, soldering tools, and anything else mechanic were strewn about the room. The heavy counter that separated the front from the workshop was home to the finished products waiting for pickup. They were farm tools mostly, with the occasional pistol or shotgun. Not many knew about the shop within the bakery. It wasn't illegal by any means (which was surprising) but private. It was a business that required precision, not halfinished orders and stuck up customers. It was an artform.

Those that did know of the shop rarely came in person. It was common for them to meet the second mechanic in the bakery. A gentle and hospitable location with warm food and bright sun streaming in from the large windows, instead of the dimly lit workspace with prosthetic arms and legs hanging from hooks like fish.

So when a small man pushed open the door and caused the welcome bell to jingle (there were spider webs forming) one late afternoon, it almost made Thalia drop her screwdriver mid twist.

The woman looked up from her tedious work, pulling off her magnifying goggles and settling them around her neck. "How may I help you?" she asked, eyeing the customer.

The man was small. Short in stature and lithe in mass. He had a crop of black hair combed in a neat undercut and a sour pull of his mouth. In his arms was a burlap bag with something large tucked neatly away. His dark eyes swept around the room, mouth pulling into a sourer look at the mess.

He placed the sack on the counter with a thud and a small cloud of dust billowed up. "I was told you can fix ODM gear," he said.

Thalia mentally filed away the crisp military uniform and forest green cloak that hung over his thin shoulders. She pulled at the strings of the sack, opening it wide. Her fingers brushed against the cool metal as she carefully pulled the machine from its confinement. "Let me take a look." Pulling her goggles over her eyes, she bent over the guts of the machine. Her foot bounced on the peg of her stool as she picked over the parts. She wasn't an expert with the equipment, but well versed enough to draw a conclusion after a few moments of prodding.

Pulling down her goggles, she held up square that held the iron wire. "The belt that pulls the wire is worn out," she said. She fit her fingernail under the thin belt. "It's a simple replacement but the material can be hard to find,"

The man ran his finger across the counter, as though he were inspecting the dust. "Can you fix it or not?" he asked, impatient. He eyed his dust coated finger and the tip of his nose wrinkled.

Thalia tried not to bristle. "I'll put you on the list. What other problems does the gear have?" she began to put it back into the sack carefully.

He shrugged. "Hell if I know. I was just told to bring it,"

Her fingers faltered. She gave him a long look. "Someone told you to bring it here and didn't tell you what was wrong with it?" The military was slacking. He was most likely Interior Police, she decided. His laid back, mightier-than-thou attitude was practically bursting from the room.

He shrugged.

"Can I please have a name and occupation for your order?" she said, sliding from her perch on her stool to the pad of paper tucked under the counter.

She began scratching _Military Police_ underneath all the other orders when he said, "Levi. Scout Regiment."

She paused. Slowly, she lifted her head and studied him.

Ah, that made sense why he wasn't told what was wrong. They most likely genuinely had no clue and didn't want to risk playing with it. Unlike the other two branches, it was vital the gear worked flawlessly to increase their survival rate. And it made sense why they came here. As far as Thalia was aware, Pops was the only component mechanic outside the most interior wall that didn't try to cheat you out of your money.

Pops had a soft spot for the maniacs. Which also meant Levi was top priority, much to her distaste.

"Rank?" she asked, turning back to the paper. She scratched out _Military Police_ and wrote _Levi,_ _Scout (lunatic) _at the top of the columns.

"Squad member." His voice was soft, but a twinge of authority rumbled beneath the surface. He moved from watching the particles of dust floating in the air to the few artificial limbs hanging from the ceiling.

Thalia slid the bag into her arms. Carefully, she placed it on a shelf a few paces from the front, pulling the front of it open so she could see it clearly and remember to tell Pops when he got back.

Tentatively, Levi raised his hand to brush his fingers against a metal arm directly above his head. Wires coiled out at odd places and a few joints were missing, but it was one of the few prosthetics Pops was close to finishing.

"Careful," Thalia said when his fingers brushed against the metal. "They're valuable,"

Levi lowered his hand, rubbing his fingers together. "What are they for?" he kept his eyes trained on it as though it would come alive at any moment.

She leaned her forearms on the counter, following his gaze. "The owner makes them. He's hoping to help cripples with the limbs." A seed of pride bloomed in her chest. Pops was a genius, and not the mad type. He had been designing and working on the limbs since he was a young man with little success. But that was before her family stepped in. He taught her everything she knew about machines.

The man gave her a skeptical glance and he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm sure they'll love a floppy metal arm attached to them made by an old coot,"

The drop of respect she held for the soldier evaporated. Thalia tilted her head, mouth pulled down and eyebrows knotted. "Watch it, soldier. That man is about to fix your gear for a very reduced price. I wouldn't smack talk him if I were you." She drew herself to her full height, which was several inches above his head. "Pops has a plan. He always does."

Levi gave a huff. He stepped back from the counter and turned on his polished boot heel. "When should I expect the gear finished?"

Thalia rested the left side of her hip on the counter and her fist on the right, looping her fingers under the straps that nestled snugly on her clothes. "Come back in a week,"

Levi pulled at the door. The bell rang almost mournfully, and the heavy scent of the bakery invaded the musty room. "Can't promise it will be me,"

Thalia rivaled his poor attitude with her own. She tilted her chin up, cutting him a look with her gray eyes. "I hope it's a promise you don't keep." And with that he pulled the door shut, cutting her sight of the pure white wings stitched on the back of his cloak. Wings that were drenched in blood.

* * *

_AN: A brain child of mine. I wanted to try posting part of what I'm working on to see how you guys like it. I'll be working on the full thing over the summer and posting the complete project at once in September. So chapters will be revised and changed. HOWEVER I would LOVE to hear advice and critiques you guys have. I love writing but help is always in order. You guys are amazing, love you all!_


	2. Two

_New Blood - Zayde Wolf_

* * *

_A Promise Kept._

* * *

"The short man?" Ida asked, wiping down the glass display with a damp cloth.

Thalia nodded, taking a slow sip of her coffee. "Levi," she said, propping her booted feet on the chair across from her.

Ida shot her a stern look at the crass action and Thalia immediately dropped her boots with a thud. She winced as pain shot up her legs from the impact. "He's semi-regular." Ida continued with her chore, folding the cloth to a clean side. "Usually comes here with a small redheaded girl and a blond boy on the weekends. A Danish for Isabel, black coffee for Farlan, and tea for him." She sat back on her heels, inspecting the polished glass. "Though, I haven't seen his companions lately. I hope they're okay,"

Thalia picked at her scone. "Probably munched on by a Titan,"

"Lia," Ida chided.

Thalia shrugged, not meeting her sister's sharp gaze. "You know that's most likely what happened. They're psycho for wanting to go outside the walls," she made a circular motion with her finger around her ear.

Ida stood. She tossed her dirty rag at Thalia (who flailed and barely caught it with her fingertips) and rounded to the back of the shop. "Bite your tongue, they're my most prized customers," she called.

"You just like seeing men in uniform," Thalia muttered into her mug. She took another slow sip, savoring the sweet and bitter taste dancing on her tongue.

_Levi,_ the name was imprinted in her mind. Something about the name rang a bell, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She turned her gaze to one of the floor to ceiling windows at the front of the shop. Golden, dying sunlight streamed through the spotless windows, casting long shadows on the floor. The bustle of people had died down since her lunch break, going from a stream of bodies to a trickle. She tried to still her churning mind, but his name remained. Stark and tall, unlike the actual man himself.

She was curious as to how the ODM gear he brought in was damaged. Perhaps it was from one of the suicidal _expeditions _outside the wall. Thalia never did understand how they learned anything from those missions. They would leave at the crack of dawn and return midday or evening with countless injuries and half the soldiers. Her town was one they would sometimes cross through to get to their headquarters nestled in a forest at the base of the mountains. The town was a half day's ride to the wall's gates, so it varied depending on how many they were taking out on that mission.

She adjusted the long pieces of metal on either side of her legs. She didn't usually wear her braces when she worked, it was uncommon for her to have to get up very often. But today had consisted of numerous trips to the depths of the workshop.

As Thalia chewed on the crumbs of her scone, she decided some sleuthing was in order. Her curiosity of the small man would drive her up the wall unless she bit off some sort of an answer to digest. The first place to start would be her father. He knew almost everyone in this town, probably everyone in the region. However, a letter would take several weeks to reach him.

But Thalia was a patient woman. The family business brought her up in the art of waiting for the perfect moment of when to strike.

* * *

The letter was sent later that night. It had been blunt and to the point, explaining that she couldn't quite shake off the name, that it sounded awfully familiar to her.

It would take about a month for a reply. That gave her plenty of do her own research on the Scouts as a whole and find information on him. A giddiness washed over her as she unstrapped her braces from her hips. A giddiness she only felt when there was a complex puzzle to be solved.

She quickly changed into her nightclothes and pulled her hair into a thin braid. Though it was summer, a fire crackled in the hearth of her bedroom. The double pane window was open to let fresh air in. Cicadas screamed in the trees and an owl sang softly from its perch on a far off tree branch. Fireflies blinked and winked like fairy lights in the dark. Summer thunder rumbled in the distance as warning to an approaching storm.

As Thalia carefully shuffled to the window to latch it shut, her door creaked open on its hinges. The soft pitter patter of a child's feet smacked on the wood floor met her ears, and then a muffled whomp as the child jumped on her bed. Thalia didn't need to look, knowing it was her niece.

She latched the window and drew the blinds. Using the wall for support, she carefully stoked the glowing embers of the fire. The flames licked the charred logs, drawing themselves higher.

Fern had already buried herself under the heavy covers when Thalia made it back to the bed. Her small form was curled on the edge flushed against the wall. Her tiny back rose and fell with her even breaths. Thalia gently peeled the blankets back and slid in, her back facing the child.

As she drifted off, she felt Fern press her back against hers, just as she always did. Slowly, to not disturb the child, Thalia turned over so that her chin was just above Fern's head. She tucked it over her soft hair and drifted to a dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Pops, do you know a man named Levi?" Thalia asked on a stuffy morning. The pair were inspecting the ODM gear the man brought in several days ago. Pops had found the necessary part and insisted on showing his apprentice how to properly instal it.

The elderly man glanced up from his work, the magnifying goggles giving him bug eyes. "The name sounds familiar. Why do you ask?" He pointed a gloved finger to the L-wrench.

She handed it over and watched as he carefully slid the material of the belt back. "His name sounded familiar to me, too. Could he be from home?" She leaned her elbows on the counter.

The man clicked his tongue, pausing their conversation. It was his way of saying _pay attention, then we will talk. _

Thalia drew herself up and focused on his hands as they slid the belt into place and secured it, twisting the L-wrench. She marveled at how steady his hands were, even after decades of hard, tedious work that wore at the flesh. They worked so surely, so flawlessly. Like he was a piece of machinery. Well oiled and functioning at pristine condition at all times.

The muffled sound of the welcome bell ringing stopped their task.

The duo gave each other a look. They weren't expecting any customers that morning, and rarely did anyone just wonder in.

Pops waved the screwdriver he had picked up, signaling her to investigate.

She slid off the stool, adjusted her braces and pants, and wove through forest of heavy oak shelves to the flickering lamp light. When she reached the front, she stopped short.

Levi stood at the counter, a second burlap sack placed neatly in front of him. His eyes immediately snapped to the braces that clung snuggly to her hips and legs, running down to disappear in her boots.

Thalia kicked off the fingers of shame wrapping around her feet. She strode to meet him. Now was a good time as ever to start her investigation. "Why, it's you. What do you have this time?" she asked, pulling at the strings of the bag.

Levi nodded to the second ODM set she pulled out. "Another set failed midtraining. It wasn't my idea to come here, I had every intention to avoid this dim hole,"

She shot him a look. Carefully, she turned the heavy equipment over, running her hand over the smooth metal. She immediately found the problem. A section of paneling holding the gas tank on had broken off. If one more piece had chipped, the tank would have disconnected completely, resulting in a likely explosion.

Thalia tapped her finger on the paneling. "A piece broke off. You guys need to be more careful, the gas is highly combustible,"

Levi squinted at where her fingernail was pointing. He sucked air through his teeth sharply, a look of annoyance crossing his permanently sour features. "The recruits throw that shit around like its nothing,"

Her lips quirked at his annoyance. "They're just kids," she said, as though she were an elderly adult and not twenty. "Don't give them too hard of a time,"

"They need to get smacked around a bit," he muttered.

What a sour man. She slid the gear into her arms, repeating the motions of the previous day. "This one will be a much easier fix. It'll be ready for pickup when the first set is ready,"

Heavy footsteps approaching from the back broke their conversation Thalia peeked around the corner to see Pops making his way up to the front, leaning on the shelves as support. She strode to him and extended her arm. He took it, gripping her bicep tightly. Carefully, the two made it up to the counter. Pain shot up her legs from the added weight but she kept her face indifferent.

Pops beamed at Levi, who's face didn't shift from the bitter expression. "Levi, I assume?" He let go of Thalia and leaned his forearms on the counter. Pops wasn't a large man by any means, his back was permanently curved from years of bad posture. Levi had to tilt his head down to look at the elderly mechanic.

"Yes," he said. He slid his eyes from Pops to Thalia in question. Thalia drew her back straight and pushed her shoulders back. She stood a step behind her mentor, like a bodyguard.

Well, in some aspects, she was.

"Don't worry about returning here, I'll have Lia hand deliver them," he gestured to the young woman behind him with gnarled hands. "The Scouts have done much for my family,"

Lia's brow rose. Pops never did hand deliveries. Ever. He insisted that the very least the customers could do was get their own stuff. Whatever the Scouts did definitely left a mark on his old, shriveled heart.

Levi settled Thalia with a look she couldn't quite discern. "The commander will be thrilled," he said, dryness laced under the words.

Frustration bubbled in Thalia's stomach. "I'm more than happy to do it," she matched his careless tone. _I want to find out more about him, don't burn the bridge yet, _she told herself. But his crass attitude to Pops made lighting the bridge on fire sound enticing.

"And don't worry about the cost," Pops said. "It's on me this time,"

Then, Levi softened the taught muscles in his jaw. "Thank you," he tilted his head to the man.

Pops' grin widened, showcasing his yellow teeth. Crows feet creased deeply by his bright eyes. "The pleasure is mine. I'll send Lia on Monday,"

When Levi closed the door softly behind him, Thalia whirled to face her mentor. "Why on Earth are you doing the job for free?"

Pops' emerald eyes twinkled under the flicker of the candle light. "I have a lifetime debt to repay," he pulled out his cane from under the counter and began hobbling down the isle to the workshop.

Thalia heaved the sack of ODM gear from the shelf to her arms. It amazed her that the military was able to wear the hunk of scraps and bolts around their waists like it was nothing.

"What kind of life debt?" she asked, following after him.

He let out a breathy chuckle. "I married a Squad Leader's daughter, I can't help but feel indebted,"

Thalia paused. Nonna was a Scout's daughter? She almost didn't believe it. The gray haired lady was as sweet as honey and gentler than a flower. But the more Thalia thought about it, it clicked why the woman spoke highly of the Scouts in times passed. Because she was related to one.

As Thalia worked with Pops, she found herself more and more curious about the psychotic soldiers who lived in the mountains.

* * *

_AN: __**CanYouHearTheSirens: **__Thank you! I can't wait to share what I have planned. _

_**Guest: **__Thank you! _

_Let me know if you guys have critiques :)_


	3. Three

_Thalia's theme: Wildflowers by The Wailin' Jennys_

* * *

_"An __Invitation__."_

* * *

The trek to the Scout headquarters was unbearably hot despite it being in a mountainous region. The mid June sun shone through the trees on Thalia's back relentlessly, burning through her clothes. Sweat dripped down the nape of her neck. Her braces made her legs burn, as though on fire, as the metal pressing heavily onto her pant leg.

The deeper she went, the more the wind picked up. The cool breeze kissed her sticky skin, offering the much needed respite. Her thighs ached from being on the horse for so long and her hands were cramping from holding the reins in a death grip. She wasn't fond of riding on horses on such uneven ground. They were magnificent animals, sturdy and sure footed, but she trusted her own feet more.

Which was ironic, seeing as how she couldn't even walk properly.

It was mid-day when the compound rose out of the rocky terrain and lush trees. It resembled a nobel castle, with towering spires and sturdy brick walls. The forest broke around it in a perfect circle.

Soldiers milled about, dressed perfectly in their uniforms. Some swept the overtaken cobblestone courtyard, others came in and out of the stables, and the rest stood guard. A whistle cut through the thick air when she came around the bend.

Two hard faced soldiers approached her horse, one raising his hand for her to halt. Thalia complied, gently slowing the mare to a stop. The horse huffed, shaking her head once.

"State your name and business," the fresh faced boy said.

"Lia. I'm here to deliver the fixed ODM gear one of your members sent over," she said. She ran her fingers down the mare's sweaty nape soothingly. It was so hot. Thalia was melting under her summer cloak.

The hard faced solder lifted the riding sack's flaps and carefully poked his hand in there. Thalia waited patiently as he felt around the gear. He was thorough, most likely checking for weapons. She wasn't dumb enough to leave her pistol in such an obvious spot.

Satisfied that she really was just delivering, he nodded his brown head to the courtyard. "Go ahead,"

Thanking him, she clicked her tongue and squeezed her thighs, urging the tired mare forward. A second Scout greeted her as she pulled the mare to a stop in the overgrown courtyard. She swung her tired legs over the saddle, wincing at the dull throb that crawled up her muscles.

The Scout, an auburn haired girl who looked like she was maybe sixteen, reached for the saddlebags. "Let me help you," she said. Her hazel eyes flicked to Thalia's braces and then busied her hands on the opposite of the mare.

Unbothered, Thalia followed suit, unlatching the bag on her side. "Thank you,"

The girl rose on her tiptoes to pere over the horse, flashing Thalia a grin. "You're very welcome. I didn't know we had a mechanic so close by," she carefully kept her eyes on Thalia's face.

Her legs almost buckled under the added weight of the gear. It honestly was beyond her how the soldiers were able to lug these things around like it was a feather. "We don't exactly advertise. People seem to sniff us out,"

The girl jerked her head in the direction of the door and Thalia followed. "Are these the ODM gear?"

Thalia grunted, falling in step with her. "Yes, ma'am. The devils were fun to play with, I'm sad to part with them. We made some minor adjustments to improve mobility." Mostly rewiring or oiling gears. It wasn't much but it always blew their minds, so Pops insisted on doing it. They were easy to impress.

The girl lead them through the door and down a damp stone hallway. The shade and cool walls felt like Heaven on Thalia's roasting skin. "We can't thank you enough for all the hard work you do,"

Just play the patriot. Don't let them know how insane they are, crazy people don't react well to that. "The honor is ours. We're thankful to have your branch risk your lives to liberate us from the Titans." Thalia almost cringed at the scripted words. Thankfully, the girl didn't seem to notice, or care, and pushed up a flight of stone stairs.

Echoes bounced off the castle walls from deep within the building. Voices laughing, equipment screeching, doors closing. They were such ordinary sounds. Thalia wasn't sure what she thought their headquarters would be like, but simplistic was not on the list. It was all so _normal_. As though they hadn't signed up for a premature death.

The girl pushed open a heavy wooden door with her hip. The room was rather cramped, with a table in the center and one spotless window letting afternoon light in. Pegs and shelves lined the two adjacent walls. Crisp green cloaks hung from the pegs, their emblems facing Thalia. ODM gear were placed neatly on the shelves, the blades nestled in their holders beside them.

The girl strode to the table and thunked the newly fixed ODM gear down. Thalia grit her teeth as she carefully placed hers on the table. That was probably why the gear broke so often. Levi had been right, the soldiers really didn't know how to be careful.

She briefly wondered if she would run into him, but shook it off. She wasn't here to find out about him this time. She would wait for her father's letter and be patient.

"The commander will have them looked over before we head out in the morning," the girl said, placing her hands on her hips.

Thalia tilted her head. "Another expedition?" she asked.

The girl nodded. A proud glint sparkled in her eyes. "It'll be my second one,"

Thalia made an alarmed squeak in the back of her throat. Covering it up with a spell of coughing, she turned so that the girl couldn't see her appalled face. The government was literally feeding the Titans children for breakfast. It was her second time heading the almost certain death, she couldn't be much older than sixteen.

Though, it wasn't like Thalia had a much better occupation.

"How old are you?" she asked after recovering from the shock.

The girl drew her shoulders back. "Fifteen," she beamed.

Thalia's jaw fell agape. She quickly recovered by moving to adjust the ODM gear, mindlessly pushing in a panel. The girl was three years younger than Kaine. "Stay safe, ma'am." She couldn't pinpoint the reason of the churning of her stomach.

"Petra," the girl said. A giggle that painfully made her think of Fern left her lips. "My name is Petra Rall,"

Thalia stilled her busy fingers. Contorting her mouth, she gave the girl an encouraging smile. It felt so wrong on her face; a painful lie. "Come to the shop sometime. My sister runs a cafe on North Street, you can't miss it. They're in the same building." She didn't know why she offered to let the girl come over, she never did that. The shop was a sacred place of refuge to her. But seeing Petra, a _child,_ march head first into death's maw pulled at her chest painfully.

Petra's child like grin widened. "As soon as we get back, I will,"

Thalia looped her fingers through the straps holding her braces on her waist. "I hope to see you soon."

It was sick and twisted. Her chest was hollow as she glided down the stairs to the stifling summer air, leaving Petra in the supply room. She studied every face she brushed by, wondering how young they were. No soldier had the fine lines of life creasing around their mouths or eyes like she did.

Her life wasn't safer than theirs. The family business left a bullseye on her back, but she had been trained all her life the art of killing. She didn't have to fight monsters that were larger than life. And to top it off, the business was not shrouded in glory like this slaughterhouse was.

Unable to bear the carefree sounds of laughter echoing on the walls, laughter that would be snuffed out, she pushed her legs to carry her faster down the hall. As she turned the corner sharply, her shoulder collided with another.

Pausing to mumble an apology, the soft words died on her tongue.

Levi gave her a sharp look. Again, his eyes flicked to her leg braces and they lingered for a moment too long. "Did you deliver the gear?" he asked, finally looking up at her.

Heat prickled at the nape of Thalia's neck. She wasn't ashamed of her disability, even when people openly stared. But the way he studied them made her squirm. "I did. Petra and I put them in the supply room upstairs,"

He nodded once. "Tell the old man that the Scouts thank him," he turned to disappear around the corner.

Thalia chewed the inside of her cheek, a question bubbling in her chest. "Levi." She called before she talked herself out of it. The man paused, raising a brow. "How old are you?"

He gave her a long look. She didn't back down, refusing to shrink under the cold gaze. She had seen far colder.

"Twenty five." He said.

A weight lifted from her chest. At least there was one actual adult who could make competent choices in the military.

"Thank you," she said, turning.

"Now it's your turn," he called. She paused. They studied one another for a long moment, the silence stretching thin.

"Twenty," she answered, softly.

Seeming satisfied with her answer, he dipped his head to the side. "At least you're not a snot nosed kid,"

She wrinkled her nose. "I'll take that as a compliment." He snorted.

They stood there, watching. Like two predators circling one another.

A warm breeze filled the hallway, rustling Thalia's braided hair. A sharp laugh reverberated off the stones, scratching against her eardrums. Instantly, she was reminded that the laugh was most likely going to be cut off forever in the next few days.

"I have to go," she turned, lifting her hand in farewell, "keep them safe."

And with that, she disappeared from sight, cloak snapping behind her like wings.

* * *

_AN: Don't get too used to these normal updates haha! I'm about to be working more so I won't have as much time. But we're gettin the ball rolling :) I'm taking a little bit of __creative__ liberty with Levi and Petra's ages. Don't forget to __critique! Love you all. _

**_quxxn-lou:_**_I'm glad you're liking it! :)_

**_Rifu-ko:_**_Thank you so much! I'll be adding more descriptive ones as I go back and do more fine tuning editing. I've adjusted that detail. Alas, I have never read the manga so a lot of what I'm doing is Googling. I fixed my mistake in my documents, so when I put out the fine tuned version it'll be all ready to go! _


	4. Four

_Flight Range - The Versions (Breath of the Wild OST)_

* * *

"_Timid Beginnings."_

* * *

Two weeks had passed since Thalia delivered the ODM gear to the Scouts.

In that time, she had busied herself by digging for what information her family had on the Scouting Legion. Or Recon Corps. Or Scouting Regiment. Or Survey Corps.

Saints, they had too many names.

Pops was more than happy to divulge in any information but he pointed her to Nonna. After all, she would know most of the answers Thalia had questions for by growing up with them.

So that was how Thalia wound up in the elderly couple's kitchen on an oddly cool June afternoon, the windows open to let a breeze ruffle the herbs strung up to dry. She watched the old woman bustle about her bright, herb and vegetable filled kitchen, her hands picking at the skin under her nails.

"David said you had some questions for me," Nonna said, pouring a cup of fresh coffee for the woman. She placed the mug and creamer in front of Thalia and sat down on the opposite side of the round kitchen table. The wrinkles by her eyes deepened as she studied the fidgeting woman.

Thalia's fingers immediately latched onto the warm mug. "I hand delivered some ODM gear to the Scout's base a few weeks ago. So it made me curious,"

Nonna waved her wrinkled hand in front of her as if to say _continue. _

Thalia slowly poured the cream into her coffee. She didn't know why her hands shook or why her heart pressed against her chest. She carefully lowered the creamer's container on the polished pine table.

"What is it that they _do? _I understand they collect Titan information, but it's not exactly public information," she said.

Nonna picked up her stitching from the basket by her seat. "The Scouts were the ones that found the weak spot on the Titan's neck," she said. She pulled her glasses from their perch on her head to the bridge of her nose, and held out her embroidery to see.

Her trembling hands slowly pulled the needle and thread through the stiff cloth. "They study Titan behavior by setting up camps. However, most of those camps are eventually destroyed by Titans," she said it casually, as though hundreds of human lives hadn't been lost during those expeditions.

Thalia suspected it was the only way she could cope with the knowledge.

"Who currently commands them?" She asked after a moment of cross stitch filled silence.

Nonna tilted her work closer to the window behind her, squinting down her nose. "Erwin Smith, I believe that's his name. He's young, if I remember correctly. Early thirties at the latest." She _tsk_ed. "The military is so desperate for commanders that they just let anyone take charge. Though, the last one was subpar at best,"

Thalia pressed her forearms on the table. "Who was the last one?"

"Keith Shawdis," she practically spat his name out. "My daddy died under his command,"

Thalia's heart dropped to the acid in her stomach. "Nonna, I'm so sorry,"

She pulled her needle through for another stitch. "That's the risk they make when they sign up. What other questions did you have?" She leveled Thalia with a look that clearly read _Don't push it. _

Thalia grasped for the floating questions in her brain. "How old do they have to be to enlist?" She lifted the mug to her lips, blowing the steam away before taking a slow sip.

The eldelry woman stabbed her needle through her cloth. "Twelve."

Coffee went down the wrong pipe. She coughed, pounding a fist on her chest. "I'm sorry, what?" A sickness washed over her. Thalia had her hands drenched in blood as a young child, but it hadn't been sanctioned by the government.

But the life she took had been human, not beast.

Nonna carefully did not lift her eyes to meet the baffled woman. "The younger they are, the easier it is to train them." She shot her a sharp look. "Your family's business isn't much better, girl. I'm not saying what the government allows is right, but you can't judge,"

She had a point. Thalia wasn't better.

She had been taught the forbidden art of killing humans, which was a horrible crime when humanity was already barely thriving. She was aware her opinions were heavily biased, but she didn't care. They weren't sending off sniffling children who barely knew their multiplication tables, to fight monsters. To fight a war the King was too greedy to properly fund.

Slowly, Nonna placed her stitching down on the table. She turned her head, carefully studying the thriving garden outside her window. The lines in her weathered face deepened and her brown eyes saddened. "Thalia, David told me of the man who came into the shop."

Thalia stilled. Every nerve stood on edge and she unconsciously straightened her spine.

Nonna's voice wavered as she spoke. "Be gentle with him. If he comes back, offer a place of rest. The Scouts experience horrors you will never understand unless you go outside the walls." Her voice softened and her eyes turned glassy. "They're like wounded animals. Scared and forced to stay brave."

Thalia stared into her drink, chewing on her lip. The swirl of the milk and coffee twisted and formed a spiral, much like her thoughts.

If Levi was still a squad member, he had to have joined later in life. However, he acted as though he were more experienced, more confident.

More and more questions kept forming in her mind, but she did not want to bear the weight of pushing Nonna too far over the edge in her fragile state. No, they were questions for another time.

Thalia carefully steered the conversation away from the Scouts and her Nonna's childhood to the gardens flourishing outside and the embroidery Nonna was making for Fern.

A voice inside of her whispered that her patience would soon pay off.

* * *

It was around five in the evening when he came stalking in.

Thalia said nothing from her perch on the stool as Levi slipped through the door, a stack of papers tucked under his arm. He harshly pulled out the chair to the lone, circular table in the corner by the bar. The chair legs scraped on the scuffed floor. She had already lit the lamp in the center, wanting the extra light to chase away the gloomy day.

His back was rigid as he sat, eyes downcast. His motions were stiff as he pulled out a slip of paper, like a marionette. He flicked his eyes up to her. Deep bags pushed into his eyes, making them look smaller. "Not going to say anything to your customer?"

Thalia rubbed the pads of her calloused fingers together. "You didn't look like you wanted to talk." She might not know the man, but she did know how to read body language. The tautness of his shoulders and the way he scanned the room was like flickering candle in a dark room. He was on edge. Thalia had dealt with enough nervous soldiers back home to know when to leave them be. She didn't fancy getting burned.

He quietly tapped his fingernail on the chipping wood. "At least you're not a dumbass,"

Her hackles didn't raise at the jab. She couldn't bring herself to be offended. The way he studied the dark corners of the room like something was about to jump out made her heart ache. She wondered how many casualties impacted the branch this time. How many soldiers he witness getting eaten. How many shrieks echoed in his ears.

She might talk smack about them but she didn't wish death upon them. They were fools for rushing out there, but she didn't want any of them to be crushed by human molars.

Saints, since when did she care? She was going soft.

But Nonna's words echoed in her mind. _They're like wounded animals. Scared and forced to stay brave. They experienced horrors you will never understand. _

She was right. Thalia's family laughed at death's face, whereas the Scouts fought off its cold, bony fingers with all their might.

She watched him shuffle the stack of papers. Always moving. His fingers couldn't keep still, his foot tapped softly, his eyes would scan the page then the room. Hunting. Searching.

Then, "Is the shop always so damn filthy?"

Thalia startled so badly that she almost fell off of her stool. She put her foot down and pressed, keeping herself upright. White pain shot through her shin. "I'm sorry?" she grit her teeth. Her eyes prickled.

He must have thought she was offended (she didn't care), because he rolled his eyes and snorted. "There's dirt everywhere. And those limbs hanging like limp fish are creepy. Doesn't it scare away customers?" He waved his hand at the false hands and legs.

Taking a deep, calming breath, she carefully pulled her leg up on the stool peg. Absently, she rubbed the palm of her hand over the bone. She should have kept her braces on. "No one comes in here. We usually meet customers in the cafe anyway,"

"The owners don't care that there's a creepy mechanic next door?"

He was full of it today. Her irritation rose with the searing pain in her leg. "It's my sister's place. Don't you have some paperwork to do?"

That shut him down. He glared at the papers, as though they were mocking him.

She squeezed her eyes shut, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. Be gentle with him. He just got back from seeing comrades eaten alive. And to top it all off he has a mountain of paperwork to fill out.

She lowered her hand, opening her eyes. "What squad member has paperwork to do?"

He flipped a page over, tenderly picking up his pen. "I was promoted to captain a week ago,"

She blinked. "Congratulations,"

He didn't look happy. Bitterness twisted his would be handsome features. "I'm only captain because our last one became Titan lunch."

Thalia didn't know what to say. She would never have voiced that thought to a near stranger, even though it was true. He was blunt, but she admired that. People dancing and tip-toeing around heavy topics set her on edge.

She stilled the fingers massaging into her shin. "I don't know what to say. My condolences of course, but I know you've heard that too many times,"

He snorted again. The man vaguely resembled a pig, she mused.

Thalia reached for her textbook she had left abandoned when he slipped in. "You're welcome to come here and work on documents for some quiet." She knew Pops would offer the same thing in a heartbeat. Might as well beat him to the punch.

He flipped a page. The crinkle of the paper felt too loud, voicing his anxiety. "The old man already told me that when I came in the bakery."

Well then. She resisted the urge to pull a face at his hunched over form.

"But thank you," he said. It was soft, almost a whisper. Like the words were forgien on his tongue.

Such a strange little man. At least her investigation on him won't be difficult, seeing as how he invited himself into her den.

Then, she looked up. "Levi, there's a soldier I met the other day, her name is Petra Rall. Did she make it back alive?" Saints, the girl died she didn't know how she would feel. Enraged? Depressed? She met the girl once and she didn't know why she cared, but it had been weighing on her mind ever since she heard they had returned.

Levi thumbed through his papers, scanning over the names. Thalia's treacherous heart pounded harshly against her ribs. Her fingers nervously played with the edge of her ribbon that kept her hair back.

He muttered something softly and shook his head. "She's still alive." He shot her a questioning glance. "Why do you care?"

Thalia released a breath she didn't know she was holding. She sank her arm comfortably on the counter and mindlessly flipped the page of her textbook. "No reason."

She really was going soft. Her stomach clenched uncomfortably. She hoped the Don wouldn't find out about that somehow.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she studied Levi. The way his shoulders slowly curved forward the longer he worked and how he rubbed his eyes every few moments.

A strange man indeed.


	5. Five

_The Lily - Blanco White_

* * *

"_Of Oddities and Curiosities."_

* * *

Levi came in every Monday and Friday evening to pour over paperwork.

At first Thalia didn't mind. It was nice having a companion to sit with, neither were talkative. She wasn't about to drill him about his life, not with just a strange gut sensation to go off of. She was going to take her time, observe and discover on the perch of her stool.

After the third week, she picked up on his odd quirks and it drove her up the wall.

He had a habit of muttering obscenities under his breath as he filled out the reports. Usually something about the recruits _messing shit up._ He also insisted on downing a pot of tea each time (which her sister gladly presented him).

It wasn't until several weeks after his first visit that his true _oddities_ began to shine.

The man was possessed by some inner demon to clean his space constantly. And Thalia couldn't just clean it for him before he arrived, that would be far too easy. She tried that and received a long string of curses, which she promptly returned tenfold. It had to be done _his _way.

She decided he had a screw loose, and was more than happy to smack him with a wrench to find out where it rattled.

But despite all this, she enjoyed his company. Pops had been out more than in as of late as he prepared to visit his son in the capitol and the shop felt too vast for just her. Though Levi was relatively quiet, he managed to fill the deafening silence with his jittery energy.

She would never admit it out loud that she enjoyed the man's presence, it took her a few weeks of seeing him to admit it to herself. Though they rarely spoke (most of it were curses and sharp comments during moments of high stress) they had a strange form of companionship. He still came and she unlocked the door.

Over the course of the times when he came in, she had become adept at picking up when he was in a foul mood, which was more often than not.

He could never sit still when he was in a mood. Either he was tapping his fingers silently or shifting his gaze around the room, but he was always in motion. On occasion he would get up and pace, like a clock pendulum swinging back and forth. He would mutter the most during those times. If Thalia was in the back, he would seek her out to see what she was doing because he was _bored._

When Thalia mentioned all of this to Ida one evening after a particularly rough day (her legs were acting up with the air pressure change) her sister leveled her with a look. "He most likely has PTSD,"

"I gathered that," Thalia said, pulling Fern in her lap. The three year old promptly played with the green ribbon in her hair. "He's seen his friends getting munched on, all that."

Ida pulled out a recipe box from her spot at the kitchen table, flipping the tin cover open to riffle through the papers. "Which is why you need to be careful and gentle with him. I have a feeling our shops are the only sense of stability he has right now,"

"Nonna said something similar," she said. Fern nestled her head on her aunt's collarbone, her breath fanning over her skin. Her toddler fingers picked at the soft silk ribbon. Thalia wrapped her arm around the child gently and leaned over to stoke the modest fire in the hearth. The flames rose, illuminating the comfortable three bedroom apartment.

"Don't get upset when he gets anxious," her sister said, shuffling the recipe cards on the wooden table. "Chances are he doesn't understand how to handle his feelings. You and I were taught how to deal with that kind of stuff at a young age,"

Thalia hummed. Ida was right, as always. Their mother had been a scholar fascinated by the human brain, something that came into use many times for the family business. She understood concepts that the rest of society deemed ridiculous. She had drilled those lessons into her childrens' brains, teaching them healthy ways to cope with trauma in hopes they actually put in practice should the need rise.

Thalia had never been in a position to practice the flip side of coping - being patient while someone else was hurting.

"I'll do my best to not knock him upside the head with his constant muttering," she said. She felt Fern's head grow heavier on her chest.

Ida pushed back on the table, the chair legs scraping harshly against the wood. "Mom left us plenty of books to read all about the brain if you're interested," she moved into the cozy living area, picking Fern up. The child nestled into her mother's embrace sleepily.

Thalia shook her head. Her lap felt chilly without her niece's warmth. "I'll manage," she said softly. She couldn't bear the thought of flipping through the old pages. Pages her mother poured over.

Ida gave her a long look, her bright blue eyes reading through her perfectly. "I'll see you in the morning," she dropped the conversation.

Thalia bid her older sister goodnight. Curling her legs under her, she leaned in the stiff back of the armchair and watched the fire eating away at the charred logs.

If she wanted to uncover why his name was so familiar to her, she needed to remain gentle in his agitated states.

Gentleness was not something she was accustomed to practicing on adults. But she would try, for the sake of her curiosity.

* * *

"You broke another ODM set?" Thalia asked, perplexed. Levi arrived on a Tuesday evening and set the sack down with a heavy thunk.

She stared at it, unmoving. "What are you guys doing to my hard work?" She jabbed her gloved finger at the cloth. "If this is one of the sets I already fixed, I'm going to scold someone,"

Levi took his spot by the table a few paces from the bar. He kicked his legs out, leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed. "It's a different set, calm down."

Thalia pulled her magnifying goggles on her face. Sliding the machine out of its confinement, she used the tip of a screwdriver to examine the fascinating equipment. She carefully tapped and prodded, curling over the gear. It was ceroded beyond belief, the owner of the gear must have never cleaned it properly. They were finicky that way, needing ample time to dry after being washed with water. The gears responsible for pushing the hook wires out needed oiling at least once every two weeks, which the Scouts neglected to do more than half the time.

"It needs to be cleaned properly at least," she said. Her back whined as she sat up straight. "There's a box a few shelves down with the supplies I need. Can you get it for me?" She had taken her braces off that day, not expecting him to arrive. They were uncomfortable to wear all day, so she removed the heavy gear whenever she knew she would be stationary for long periods of time.

Levi remained seated. "Why can't you go get it?"

It was an innocent question but irritation bubbled in her stomach. He had left the question of her braces alone for half a month, but all good things had to come to an end.

She curled her back over the equipment. "Because I'm lazy and don't want to put my braces back on,"

Silence.

Thalia's irritation bubbled up into her chest, burning her chest cavity. She remained hunched over her work, like a cat arching its back out of malice.

Then, the harsh scratching of the leg chairs on the floor filled her ears and the thud of his booted feet went to the back. Muttering left his lips as he scanned the shelves.

She jumped as the box was set in front of her with a harsh thunk. This time, she caught the edge of the counter with her hands. Her goggles hid her scowl from view. She muttered her thanks, putting her screwdriver down and rifling through the materials. She pulled out a cleaning solution and turned to work, carefully prying open the rusted panels.

Levi watched her with mild interest, leaning his hip against the workbar opposite of her. His lip curled when the cleaning solution splashed onto the counter.

"Why do you wear braces?" He asked after a bout of tense silence.

Thalia worked the cloth around the tight crevices of the gear. She briefly considered lying in his face, but decided against it. Lying would get her nowhere, and she genuinely valued their companionship. However, her legs were a sore spot for her, despite the fact that she had always had people ask her about them. It was tiring.

"I was born prematurely," she said. "They never grew strong enough for them to fully support me,"

"I think that's just code for you not drinking your milk," he said.

The cloth snagged on a corner and she pulled harshly. A fringe unraveled. "You're one to talk, sir,"

He snorted. "I can still kick you even though you're freakishly tall,"

"Kicking a cripple would be considered a serious crime. I'll get your ass demoted," the pulled thread snagged on a screw, unraveling even more.

"Fine by me. At least I wouldn't have to go to boring meetings," he leaned his forearm on the bar, watching her fingers push the cloth in the tight corners.

She doused the cloth with another round of the solution. "What do you guys even talk about in those meetings?" She set the cloth down and unscrewed another panel, tenderly putting it aside.

"Boring stuff," he replied.

She went back to scrubbing. "Such as?" the thread snagged again. She tugged it sharply, ripping it free from the edge.

He reached over and tugged at the loose string, ripping it from the cloth. "Casualties, ways to keep the green horns from becoming snacks, and nasty political schemes,"

"Green horns?" she asked.

"Recruits," he flicked the string off his finger.

She hummed. They lapsed into a second bought of silence but it wasn't tense like before. It was comfortable, just a hair from relaxing. Neither were exactly ones to relax to begin with.

Softly, she halfheartedly hummed a melody her mother would sing to her siblings before bed. It was a tender tale, of a mother sending her children off to the world to find love and life. It was a promise that they belonged in a world encased in gentle rays of life and that one day, they would find that tender love.

Her humming cracked and trailed off. Her fingers paused their tedious work. Her eyes prickled and she thanked the saints above for her goggles hiding her eyes from Levi's sight.

Biting her cheek harshly, she pushed on with her work, shoving memories of her mother's voice in the darkest parts of her mind.

Now was not the time to remember. There never would be a time.

* * *

_AN: And here's a little more! For those who may read my other story - I will be updating! I just changed responsibilities within my current place of employment and a summer class for college just started, so I'm in a rough adjustment period. _

_Thank you everyone for reading! Please tell me your thoughts and opinions. _

_**CanYouHearTheSirens: **__Thank YOU for reading! _


	6. Six

_I Had the Craziest Dream - Harry James_

* * *

"Five Foot Two Without Eyes of Blue."

* * *

The heavy door to the shop cracked open, a golden sliver of late summer light crawling into the dim room.

Levi and Thalia glanced up from their tasks, curious as to who would be disturbing them so late. The cafe was closed for the night and Pops had left early that afternoon, well before Levi arrived.

A head of mousy hair poked around the door knob, bright green eyes round with uncertainty.

Thalia slid off her stool, placing her Vernier Caliper down. "Fern," she said. She rounded the corner, arms out.

Her niece's brown dress billowed around her knees as she jumped into her waiting arms. Thalia grunted under Fern's weight as she pulled her up to her chest, looping her arms carefully around the toddler.

Fern's little hands promptly grasped the green ribbon in her hair. "What are you doing here?" Thalia asked, despite knowing she wouldn't get much of an answer.

Fern shrugged her thin shoulders. She watched the ribbon intently, as though it were made of the finest silk imaginable.

Thalia turned her gaze to the cracked door. Ida must be working in the kitchen, or else she would keep her only child close.

Then she glanced at Levi. A bark of laughter nearly escaped her tense lips at his unusual expression.

His narrow eyes were wide, bouncing from Fern to Thalia to her left hand. His lips, which were almost always pulled in a frown, were parted in surprise. He resembled a deer caught by a hunter, unsure whether to make an escape or accept its fate.

A wicked thought came into her mind.

Thalia hugged Fern close, swaying her hips to sooth her. "Surprised?"

His mouth snapped shut and he swallowed thickly. Then, a switch flipped, and his shock was wiped away, replaced with calculated indifference.

"I had no idea you had your own brat," he said, leaning his arm on the back of the chair. "You never wear a ring,"

Thalia pressed her cheek to Fern's soft angle hair. "Rings will get caught on things, it's quite a nuisance,"

His eyes narrowed a fraction. "Is the father still around?"

Fern tugged at the ribbon. Thalia pried her fingers off the cloth, Fern whining in protest. "No, he left not long after she was born," she lied, watching his reaction closely.

A shadow crossed his face. "I see."

Silence enveloped them like a stuffy blanket on a humid summer night, stifling the tranquility of the evening.

Thalia rocked Fern for a few more beats. She carefully studied Levi stiffly gather his things through her lashes and stilled. "I'm joking, Levi," she said. She didn't want to ruin her investigation because she wanted to test something. It wasn't worth it. She had been childish to say those things with no sound reasoning behind them.

He froze. Carefully, he looked up. Annoyance pulled his brows together and his shoulders were as taught as a bowstring.

Today had been a bad day to mess with him.

He pointed a finger at Fern, brow arched in question. "My niece," she clarified. She murmured into Fern's ear, who had grasped the ribbon again. "Say hello,"

Fern straightened, arching her back to get a better look at the irked man. A smile as bright as the summer sun lit her face, showcasing her baby teeth that were coming in. She babbled a sloppy hello.

Thalia took a few careful steps closer to the table and stopped.

He leaned back, crossing his legs. He was completely shut down. While he was always reserved, she could still get some sort of read on him by a twitch of his brow or the sliding of his gaze. But now, his mannerisms were calculated and careful.

Any other half decent person would have been heartbroken at seeing a broken soldier swing from open to closed off. But instead she was curious. Another question that was apart of the puzzle she was slowly putting together.

The guarded way he watched Fern only made her curiosity spike.

However, she shouldn't have played with him. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have joked about that," the apology was oddly sincere.

He snorted, pulling his stack of papers back out from his worn leather satchel with a thud. "Why are you apologizing? It's not like we talk about our personal lives,"

Thalia sat in the chair opposite from him, lifting Fern from her hip and swinging her onto her lap. The toddler gigled with the fun motion, grasping tightly onto Thalia's neck. "Our work doesn't allow us to make much conversation," she said.

Levi carefully placed his pen on the table. He shot her a curious look, brows furrowed and eyes narrowed.

Levi was a clever man, Thalia figured that out after his second visit. Though not in the way that honorable officers were with their higher-than-thou attitude. No, he had a sly aura surrounding him. One that chillingly reminded her of Vincent.

She didn't know if it should make her turn back and forget her sleuthing or dig deeper. Anyone reminding her of her older brother should make her turn tale and run.

Then, in true toddler fashion, Fern's hand snatched out and grasped the beautifully polished pen. She promptly gave it a solid shake, spilling what little ink the tip had left inside all over the front of her dress.

"_Fern_," Thalia gasped. She yanked the pen out of her ruddy grasp, sliding it back to Levi while mouthing an apology. An ear shattering wail left Fern's lips and her body fell forward on the table, hands grabbing for the pen Levi tucked away.

Heat crawled up Thalia's neck. Crying babies usually didn't embarrass her, she wasn't the one that had to deal with it on the daily. But the way Levi watched Fern, as though she were some alien creature, made the woman want to curl under the table for eternity.

Hastily, Thalia stood, gathering the still wailing Fern to her chest. Her arms strained as the girl waved her stained hands for her beloved pen. "I'm sorry, but I better get her home," she said over another wave of wet cries.

Levi's mouth drew into a straight line. The gears behind his eyes churned, working something out, but Thalia didn't have the peace of mind to observe it. The rising cries of her niece made her chest constrict and her throat swell.

She needed to get home. Now.

Thalia bounced Fern on her hip in hopes to calm the crying with no success. Her eyes darted from Levi putting his papers away painstakingly slow to Fern's tear stained cheeks. Ida was going to murder her for letting Fern ruin her new dress.

Finally, by the saints's good blessings, Levi snapped his satchel shut, looping his shoulder through the worn strap. Thalia wasted no time, making a b-line for the door, her free hand fumbling for the keys in her pocket.

Once they were outside in the suffocating humidity, Fern finally decided to settle down. She sniffed, laying her tear streaked, snotty cheek on Thalia's oil stained shirt, mumbling for her newfound toy.

"Again, I'm so sorry," Thalia said for the third time. "It's well past her bed-time, she can get fussy if she's tired,"

Levi shrugged a shoulder. "I don't care, it's what little brats do,"

Thalia shifted at the word, but his tone made her pause. The man had his own dialect, one she was still puzzling out, but was slowly translating. He used the term brat far too often for any average conversation, substituting coming words like _child, teenager, toddler_ for it. She only heard it in negative connotations, but perhaps it had a double meaning depending on the context. Much like the English language, that word can have many different definitions depending on how the user placed it in the sentence.

Thalia angled her body away from him, lifting a hand in a wave. "I'll see you Monday, yeah? I better get her put to bed,"

Levi's hand gripped the strap of his satchel, pulling the leather taught. "Let me walk you. It's growing dark and I would feel bad for anyone having to listen to her screams should you get lost."

Thalia rose a brow at the peculiar jab. She knew she could take care of herself despite her braces saying otherwise should anyone be stupid enough to attack her in this town. The sun had slipped behind the mountain an hour ago, leaving dark shadows in its wake. Fireflies danced amongst the humidity, casting soft glows in the growing patches of darkness.

"Alright," she reconciled, "but I'm not slowing down for your short legs,"

He muttered something below his breath, falling into step with her quickly.

They walked down the cobble stoned streets in silence, save for the chirping of the whippoorwills and hum of the cicadas in their green lush homes. Soft, golden glowing from the slender houses lit their path as they made their way up and down the hilly streets. Sharp clanking of dishes and muffled laughter could be heard as they passed by homes. Jaunty songs wafted out of the two taverns the town was home to, with their doors propped open to allow a breeze to circulate through the tobacco filled air.

Thalia turned a corner, gripping onto Fern tighter. Her little head had fallen onto her shoulder dramatically, her snotty nose pressed into her skin, causing Thalia to inwardly cringe. She set her booted feet on a pair of stone steps, leading up to a small home nestled in the alleyway, such as all of the homes were in the poorer district.

Her keys jingled like soft wind chimes as she pulled them out. Bumping the heavy wooden door with her shoulder, she strode into the uncomfortably warm living area. Her boots thudded against the wood in a comforting manner, signaling to her that she was home. The tension that had wound its way into her shoulders lessened.

"Make yourself at home," she called to Levi, who stood silently in the doorway. "Light a match, I'll be out in a minute." Though a part of her wanted to close the door in his face, she knew she couldn't do it and not have annoying guild nip at her heels.

Carefully, she clicked the door to her room shut and placed Fern on the edge of the bed. She busied herself by lighting a candle, cracking the window open but shutting the curtains, and helping the toddler out of her stained dress and into her sleep dress.

She finished her routine by tucking a yawning Fern into her bed. Ida would be back late, it would be best for Fern to sleep with her that night.

Kissing her niece on the head, she bowed out of the room with the candle in her grasp.

When Thalia returned to the living area, she found Levi crouched on the floor lighting a small fire in the hearth. He had cracked open the two windows flanking the fireplace, lighting the candles that sat on the sill.

"Would you like some coffee or tea?" She offered politely, praying he would say no. As much as she enjoyed spending time with him, her legs and lower back ached. She needed a good soak to loosen stiff joints and muscles.

With his back still to her, he said, "Just one cup."

Her soak would have to wait, then. Forcing her aching legs to move, she settled the kettle on the heavy metal rod over the fireplace, leaning over Levi. Then, she strode into the kitchen sectioned off in a small alcove, pulling down the hand painted pot and delicate china cups. Ida proud herself in providing beautiful meals, splurging the money their father gave them on anything related to kitchenware.

"Green tea?" she called softly to not disturb Fern trying to fall asleep.

He made a scoffing noise. "Black,"

Rolling her eyes, she measured the tea leaves. Tea all tasted the same to her: bitter. She preferred a strong cup of coffee to the tangy taste of tea.

A wave of craving washed over her. Pulling down a second small teapot and strainer, she measured the coffee grounds and prepared her cup.

Settling the items on the square wooden table designed for four, she paused. A letter with her name written in crisp writing on the top right corner sat innocently on the doily that was the center decoration. Her heart picked up speed in her chest, knowing who the letter was from.

She stole a glance at Levi, who had moved to inspect one of the bookcases. She could sneak a peek at what the letter read, she convinced herself.

Lighting the table candle with slightly trembling hands, she pulled out a chair and opened the crisp paper.

The letter wasn't long. It was simple and straight to the point, just as her family operated. Her eyes danced across the thin, straight edged letters.

_Thalia,_

_Yes, I remember the name. He was an informant for the Don before being recruited by the Scouts. Feel free to do what you wish with him, but do not tell him the family name. We left on terms I can divulge in when you visit home. _

_Your father, _

_Lorenzo. _

So he was affiliated with the family business. Though it was an answer to her first question, it only nurtured more curiosities. If she didn't unravel the mystery of Levi, the questions alone would drive her insane.

"What's that?" Levi said from her shoulder.

Thalia startled, banging her knee into the table harshly. The cups rattled on their saucers, teetering dangerously. She cursed, gripping her knee where a bruise would bloom later.

"Nothing," she said quickly, stuffing the letter in her breast pocket.

Levi rounded the table, the tea kettle handle wrapped in a thick cloth in his hand and rose a thin brow.

She rubbed her knee. "My father sent a letter." It wouldn't hurt to tell him that she had family. Just not the name.

He poured the steaming water in the separate kettles, taking his time with the coffee grounds. "Does he not live here?"

She shook her head, resting her arms on the table. "More on the interior,"

He hummed. He placed the tops of the pots on and settled across from her. In the flickering candle light, the rough edges of his features sharpened wickedly. His straight nose cast a harsh shadow on his cheek bone and his deep set eyes almost disappeared in the shadow.

He was exactly what one of their informants would appear to be. They were all rough edges with a sliver of attraction to get the answers they sought.

The hand carved clock mounted on the wall ticked in their silence. The hands moving around the clock face creating a cacophony to her ears.

Now unable to bear his stillness, Thalia moved to the pantry wall, pulling back the curtain. "Do you take honey or sugar with your tea?"

"Honey," he replied. He remained peculiarly still, which pushed Thalia's nerves to the edge. She was accustomed to being the motionless one while he bounced around the room.

She pulled the honey jar from the shelf and grabbed a spoon. She set it on the table, placing her hands on her hips. Glancing at the clock, she moved to pour his tea.

He eyed her as she poured his cup full, sliding the honey to him. "Why are you so damn jittery?"

Her hand froze around her pot of coffee. "It's been a long day," she lied. She forced herself into motion, pouring her craved drink.

In truth, knowing he had left on bad terms with her family set her nerve endings on fire. If he dared to raise a finger to harm her family she wouldn't hesitate to shove her knife in his jugular.

But she didn't want it to come to that. Which was so unlike her that it made her want to pace until all of the energy inside of her escaped into the humid summer night. She had been raised with a twisted moral code but her companionship with the little captain made her want to straighten it out.

A smile twisted her lips. _Little Captain._ She liked the ring to that.

"What the hell was that smirk?" he asked, exasperated.

Stirring her honey into her coffee, she met his eyes over the dancing candle. "I thought of what I'm going to call you," she said.

"Which is?"

"Little Captain."

His face darkened. "What?" It fell flat like a demand.

A pretty smile slashed across Thalia's face. "It suits you, sir. You're what, five foot zero?"

"Five foot two," he retorted around his tea. He held his teacup at an odd angle. His long fingers gingerly held the top of the china as he drank, as though something was wrong with the handle.

Her grin widened, filing away the sensitive shift of his shoulders for future use. "And I'm just a measly five six. I look like a giant compared to you, _Little Captain,_"

He stared at her, face blank and eyes dull. Thalia didn't back down from the dark look, but she recognized it well: a predator seizing up its prey. But little did he know that she was not a mouse in the mercy of a hawk. She was just as deadly as he.

In the midst of her research, she discovered he had an impressive kill count of Titans. But she couldn't help but wonder what his human body count was compared to hers. It had to be relatively high to be an informant, blood stained their elbows along with their nails.

The clock's drums struck the strings nine times, signaling the late hour. The screaming cicadas along with the calling chuck's-will-widows floated through the cracked windows, and a cool breeze caused the dancing flames to stumble on their wicks. The night had grown sleepy.

Thalia's eyes burned as she blinked away exhaustion. She nursed her cup of caffeine, sitting in silence as Levi finished his drink and placed the dishes in the sink basin. He pulled the corners of his uniform jacket down, snapping away any wrinkles the leather may have formed.

"I better get back to HQ," he said.

Thalia blinked. "Of course. Let me see you out." She pushed herself upright and followed him to the door. Her feet scuffed the floor more, and her muscles burned bitterly. She needed to soak and stretch.

He unlatched the door. "Thank you for the tea, even though it wasn't strong enough,"

Thalia leaned her hip and shoulder on the door jam. "Tell me when I care,"

He snorted. Straightening his cravat (what year did he think he was living in?) and pushing his bangs from his lashes, he tipped his head to her. "Goodnight, Lia."

"Will you find your way back okay?" She asked.

He didn't pause his descent of the stone steps. "I'll see you Friday,"

Thalia watched his winged back disappear into the shadows of the summer night, wondering how she would balance befriending him yet keep him at an arm's length. He wasn't going to open up to her without her following suit, he was far to emotionally shut off for that. After several weeks of seeing him she still barely knew anything about him.

Softly clicking the door shut, she rested her back on the rough wood, letting her head fall back with a thud. Just more of an equation for her to solve. One she was determined to find the solution to, just for the sake of winning the puzzle.

* * *

_I hope I'm doing this series justice. Please critique, I welcome it! I want to grow, and the comments do help me push to write. _

_I kinda invision Thalia to listen to 1930-50's swing music and would write it in if they had electricity in that world. I may try to allude to it ;)_

_**Justanotherlife:**_ _here you go, darling! Thank you for commenting! :)_


	7. Seven

_Stairway to the Stars - Glenn Miller_

* * *

"Summer Nights, They Fly."

* * *

It was mid July when Thalia met the young commander.

The parts of her braces were spread out across the workshop counter, her head bent forward and her gloved fingers working steadily. Her work goggles were perched on the top of her mousy hair, keeping thin strands out of her grease smudged face.

The bell chimed merrily as the door knocked against it. The familiar scent of floral and warm goods and the cheerful sounds of customer chatter slipped through the opening door. Thalia glanced up, expecting Pops to lumber through.

Instead, a barrel chested man ducked through the door, closing it softly behind him. He was tall, far taller than Vincent by a few inches. His blond hair was cut similarly to Levi's but swept back neatly. Heavy brows sat above steel blue as they snapped to her curled form. He was dressed in a Scout's uniform with a commanding officer's tie laced around his neck.

Commander Erwin Smith. Intelligent, patient, able to rise the morality of his men seamlessly. And according to Levi, a shitty person with a shit schedule. Whatever that meant, Thalia had no idea.

Erwin stepped towards the bar, eyes scanning the hanging limbs and spare parts. Thalia's hand inched to the pistol strapped under the bar but kept her shoulders relaxed. Her fingers curled around the cold, wooden handle. Of all the days he decided to come into her shop, he chose when she was making adjustments to her braces.

"Can I help you, sir?" She asked calmly.

He stopped in front of her. His strong build loomed over her vastly smaller frame like a mountain of pure, raw muscle. "Are you the young woman who runs this shop?" He asked.

Her gloved fingers tightened over the pistol handle. "I do help run it, yes. Who's asking?" Her eyes flicked to his tie, where a sea blue gem glinted in the flickering lantern light.

He extended his hand. "Commander Erwin Smith of the Scouting Legion,"

Thalia eyed it for a second. He was forcing her hand off the gun. Either he was clever or dumbly polite. She reluctantly took her hand off her weapon and shook his firmly. Judging by the hard lines in his face, it was definitely the former.

"Lia," she said, pulling her hand to her lap.

"Just Lia?"

She gave a tight lipped smile. "Lia Stien," she lied, using the alias she and her sister went by in the town. "What brings you to the shop?" She was hyper aware of her matted hair and grease streak on her cheek bone.

His eyes swept the room again. "I wanted to thank you and the owner personally for fixing our equipment this past month. We're preparing to move, you see, and we won't have such skilled mechanics where we're going,"

Her heart squeezed painfully. "Where are you preparing to move?" If they moved far, she would lose her mystery to solve. And that would mean she would lose the puzzle. She didn't like that one bit.

"Just inside Wall Maria. We're planning on another expedition outside the walls in a few months time," He then turned his attention to the guts of her braces. "Very impressive work. Did you do this yourself?"

"Not all by myself. I designed it and Pops put most of it together," she said. Wall Maria. That was a two day ride, but he never said where at in the region. So who knew how far her Little Captain and his mystery would go. Somewhere far out of her reach.

Something inside of her started to fall, but she yanked it up and patched it together. It was no issue, he was just something for her to play with to keep her occupied.

He nodded once. "You have a bright future ahead of you,"

"Thank you," she murmured. Her left elbow rested on the counter while her right hand stayed on her thigh, just in reach of her gun. Something about the way he studied her made the hairs on her nape rise. Like he knew her and what she was behind her carefully assembled viel of grease stains and sweat.

Giving a third sweep of the room, he offered her a smile that was supposed to come off as gentle, but just made her hackles rise even more. "Give your father my best regards. We'll certainly miss having you fix our equipment,"

The poor man had mistaken Pops as her father. While it wasn't an uncommon assumption, she didn't want _that_ rumor to spread.

"Pops isn't my father," she called as he had his meaty hand wrapped around the door's handle, "but I'll give him your regards."

He shot her a look that made her blood chill. "I'm well aware." He was gone before she could call after his winged back.

She slammed her fist on the rough wood. Dull pain bloomed in her wrist and fingers.

He knew who her father was. Which meant he knew exactly who she was. Did that mean Levi knew?

Her heart thudded painfully in her ribcage. She prayed to the saints he didn't.

* * *

Thalia pushed the splintering box of tools on a high shelf. Sweat dripped down her neck and chest, plastering her white button up shirt to her skin. She wiped brow with her wrist, leaving a stripe of grease behind. Pops was leaving in three days to visit his son in the capitol, an official officer. He and Nonna never divulged in who he was, so Thalia could only speculate. The military had many sections despite there only being three official branches. The three branches had offshoots to accommodate for the little civilian discipline that was required.

She luged another back achingly heavy box up, shoving her weight into it to force it to the back of the shelf. She needed to reorganize so that the heavy equipment didn't go on the top most shelf and break her lower spine every time she got it down.

"Need a hand?" A soft voice said from behind her.

Thalia whirled around, her hand reaching to her waistband where a knife was hidden. Her heart stilled when she saw it was Levi.

He had his arms crossed and brow quirked, clearly not impressed with her grimy, sweaty attire. She stilled the hand that went to rub off the grease stain.

"It's not Friday," she said. It was Thursday. He was an evening off, which was completely out of character. She squinted in the dull light, the towering shelves blocked the glow of the lanterns up front and in the very back.

She pointed a black stained finger at his chest. "You're not wearing your uniform,"

"Congratulations, you have eyes," he deadpanned.

Instead of his standard fatigues, he had on a crisp white shirt with a black dress jacket hanging off his hooked arm. Leather straps for his ODM gear crossed his chest and back. She had never seen him outside of his uniform. The most unofficial he ever got around her was taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves while he worked. Even his cravat was gone.

She tilted her head, pressing the back of her wrist to his forehead. "You feeling okay, Captain?"

He tilted his head back, removing her hand from his damp forehead. "I'm perfectly fine, dumbass." He jerked his head to the front. "Come on,"

She stayed back for a moment, chewing on her lip. He was here a day early right after the commander had told her they were moving base. Which meant they were moving soon, or else he would have stayed to their strict schedule.

Her shriveled heart ached.

She wound her way through the forest of shelves, finding his steady back. The leather of his harness made an X in between his shoulder blades. In the growing light as they retreated from the darkness, she saw the cracked lines of wear spedireweb across the material as he moved. He would need to get it replaced soon.

"What's this about?" She asked, steadying herself for the news.

He stopped at the bar. With his back still to her, he sighed. The cracked lines in the leather grew and narrowed with the expansion of his back. "We're moving,"

Another pang shot through her heart, this time reaching her stomach. "I know,"

He turned, his face tight. He leaned his back to the lip of the bar, crossing his arms over his chest. Something he did when he was defensive, she had noted a week ago.

She looped her fingers through the straps of her braces, scanning the hanging limbs behind his head. "You commander visited me today. He thanked me for my contribution to the Scouts and informed me that you guys were moving HQ. He didn't tell me when, though,"

He muttered under his breath per-usual. "We move in a week. But since I'm blessed with the honor of being captain, they dumped a pile of shit on me to deal with. I won't be able to come visit until after we move,"

"Where are you moving to?" She kept her eyes on the half assembled arms.

"It's classified,"

"Is it really?"

"Yes,"

"How will I be able to write?" Her throat swelled with frustration. What the hell was she saying?

He pursed his lips. "Once we get settled I'll write. But I can't disclose where we'll be before hand,"

She nodded once. Her emotions were slowly unraveling, her careful facade slipping. She gripped her mask of calm and knotted the strings of certainty tighter.

"The commander told me that you guys were also planning another expedition," she said.

He hummed. "We'll head out in October, just before winter settles in and we can't go back out,"

Wires coiling out from the fingers glinted dully under the flickering glow of the lanterns. It was eerily beautiful. A chance that was yet to be brought into this world.

She swallowed against the growing lump in her throat. "Stay safe for me. Keep Petra safe as well." She hadn't seen the girl since that day in June when she delivered the gear to the Scouts, but she still wished her well. Had it only been over a month since meeting Levi? He had wound his way into the threads of her life so easily, as though he were a gear in the machine of her reality.

Levi straightened. "I won't be far. It'll be a bit of a ride, but those green horns are going to break something badly enough to where you'll have to fix it," his face shifted in the shadows. "I'll see you again,"

He was being so uncharacteristically kind that it was enough to break her stoic front with an abrupt smile.

Then she had an idea. If tonight was her last night to truly get to know him, she wanted to do her final bit of observing with a tad of flair.

"Levi," she said, tilting her head down to look at him. "Would you care to come over for dinner tonight?"

His face didn't change, but she saw confusion work in his shoulders and hands. He thought about it for a moment, then said, "I pray you're not cooking,"

"I can cook decently enough," she snapped. She took a breath, cooling her building nerves. "Ida and I do well as a duo. I'm sure she would love to see you. And Fern as well." Honestly, the toddler couldn't care less but she wasn't about to tell him that.

He thought again. He caught the bottom of his lip between his teeth. And finally, "As long as you don't poison me,"

Victorious, she stepped forward, and grabbed him by the bicep. "I can't make any promises," she said, pulling him to the door.

He followed, somewhat reluctantly, into the wolf's den.

* * *

The familiar sounds of dishes clanking inside the kitchen met Thalia's ears as they climbed up the steps to her home. Ida had opened the window's and with that meant heavenly aromas danced their way from the small kitchen to the oddly cool air. However, that also meant that her lovely voice floated along with her perfectly smelling dinner.

This one was about a stairway to the stars found with a lover. It was one of Thalia's favorites to swing along to with the gentle vibrato of her older sister's sweet voice.

Levi nodded his head to the kitchen window. "Is that your sister?"

Thalia hummed. "She's good, isn't she?"

He shrugged. "A little flat,"

Thalia swung the door open, an oddly free smile on her lips. "You're just jealous." He snorted in response.

She was going to miss this.

Thalia led Levi to the kitchen, where the burners were on full force and the sizzle and pop of the frying meat was prevalent. Bacon invaded her nostrils, setting her salivary glands on overdrive.

"That smells fantastic," she called over the clanking of Ida whisking eggs.

Ida turned, a smile as bright as the summer sun gracing her lips. Her midnight hair was pulled back in a fraying braid, strays of soft strands clung to her rosy cheeks. "Thalia, darling, you're finally home." She tilted her head, spying Levi by Thalia's shoulder. "And you bright Levi,"

Levi nodded his head and shifted beside Thalia. "Thank you for having me,"

Thalia's brows shot up. By the Saints, the man was ill. Had he ever told her thank you that wasn't followed by a curse?

Ida's smile widened. A laugh that rang like a bell left her lips and she extended her hand to the table. "Please, make yourself at home. Thalia, darling, go get washed up and changed. I'm about to put the noodles on." She turned, her brown skirts swirling around her bare feet.

Thalia nuged Levi. "I'll be right back," she said. She took off to her room, unbuttoning her shirt as she went.

She flung open her wardrobe and rifled through the cloths. It was so cool that evening that she a dress would be perfectly comfortable. Pants were always so stuffy in the summer. She felt freer in lightweight skirts. She chose a brown, calf length cotton skirt and a white button up blouse.

It took a few moments for her to get out of her braces and wriggle out of her grimy trousers. She sighed in relief as fresh air hit her bare skin. Quickly, she pulled on the skirt and tucked the fresh blouse into the high waistband.

She perched on the edge of her bed, debating on whether to put on her braces again. If she did, she would have to put on stockings and confine her legs to the hot material once more. Her skin broke out into bumps just at the thought of subjecting them to the heavy equipment.

She grabbed her two crutches and hobbled to her desk where a wash bowl sat and a small mirror. She sat in the chair and went to work at scrubbing her arms with the cool water. The grease and grime from the day swirled into the water. She finished her cleansing process by washing her face and harshly brushing her hair to the point of her scalp burning. Pulling her hair back with the green ribbon, she decided she would look decent enough.

Thalia slowly walked into the kitchen with her crutches pushing into her wrists. No matter what she chose, she was in pain somehow.

Ida's idle chatter didn't falter as Thalia carefully came into the kitchen. Shifting her weight onto the table to steady her, she settled into one the chair beside Levi. She was almost afraid of meeting his watchful gaze. She forced herself to look at him, pushing away the crippling school girl insecurity.

To her surprise, he wasn't looking at her crutches resting by her chair. Nor was he looking at her freshly scrubbed face. Instead, he was studying her _clothes_. Of all the things to stare at, he opted on the way her skirt was cinched to fit her malnourished frame.

"You're wearing a dress," he said. Ida's attention shifted to Fern, who ran into her mother's arms.

"Contradulations, you have eyes," she repeated the words he had at her. "But it's a skirt,"

Before Levi could reply, a steaming bowl of spaghetti pie was placed in the middle of the table with a thunk.

Ida pointed at the cabinet behind Levi. "Levi, darling, would you get the plates and glasses?"

Thalia's jaw went slack when Levi did as he was told without so much of a grumble. He placed expensive china on the table tenderly, as though a normal amount of force would cause them to shatter. He repeated the actions with the glasses and Thalia watched him like a hawk.

His movements were perfectly calculated. Even his posture was polite. His face, which naturally rested in a frown, was smooth and blank. His fingers, which were always tapping or rubbing against one another, were still.

As he settled back into his chair with his spine stiff and lips tight, Thalia solved another mystery of Levi. He was nervous.

Ida placed Fern in the chair between her and Thalia and then bustled to get the rest of the food on the table, a song dancing off her lips. Thalia began piling her niece's plate with small amounts of spaghetti pie, green beans, and cornbread.

Dinner was an anomaly. Not a single foul word left Levi's lips to the savory smelling kitchen. In fact, he hardly spoke at all. His face remained a perfect blank slate, the only change being the tightening of the crows feet by his slate gray eyes. Eyes that darted between the two women and toddler uncertainly.

Thalia leaned her elbow on the table, her fork dangling from the tips of her fingers. She leaned over and tried wiped away the stray green bean from the corner of Fern's mouth. The girl fussed and tried to bat away her hand, ending up in tears at the end of the green bean battle Thalia won.

Ida smiled tightly and put her napkin on the table. "I better get her cleaned up for bed. Levi, make yourself at home, please," she said as she tucked her sniffling daughter under her chin and whisked away in a flurry of skirts and humming.

Not waiting for a silent moment to tick by, Thalia picked up her plate and carefully tucked one crutched under her arm. Though it was difficult, she forced herself to manage. She wasn't about to expect Levi of all people to clean up _her_ house. Though he seemed to enjoy the task, she couldn't imagine him doing it so domestically.

Levi half stood as she hobbled to the wash basin. "Lia -"

"I've got it," she said quickly over her shoulder.

His lips thinned. Silently, he collected the dirty dishes and strode past her. She huffed as he beat her to destination in three quick strides.

"I can do the cleaning," she said when she reached the sink, placing her dish in it with a clank.

He shot her a look. His fingers worked at rolling up his white sleeves above his elbows sharply. "You'll fall down and break a hip,"

Usually she would have enjoyed the banter, but when it came to her legs she would rather smash his straight nose into his handsome face.

She worked her jaw and began putting the leftovers in the icebox forcefully. She would be damned if she let someone order her what she could and couldn't do because of her legs again. She had lived with a cloud of pity hanging over her head for most of her childhood and the thought of it returning put a sour taste in her mouth.

"Hey," Levi said above the clank of the dishes being shoved together in the small box, "you're going to break something,"

She slammed the door closed so hard that it made the wall clock's bells rattle faintly. "Like my hip?" She asked bitterly. She limped to the bread on the counter, which happened to be beside him.

Levi turned on the basin's faucet. "Calm down," he grabbed the bar of soap in a small saucer and began working at a dish.

Thalia snapped a red cloth from a hook from above her head. She carefully placed the rest of the soft cornbread into the cloth and tied it. She slid the new dish to him, no longer insistent on doing all of the cleaning herself. Let him clean his damn dishes.

He took the dish in his suddy hand and went to work. "What's got you all taught?" His shoulders rose around his ears as he scrubbed the burnt bottom of the glass dish. All anxiety from before seemingly withered away as he settled into a routine. Rinse, dunk, scrub, rinse, scrub, rinse, place on drying cloth. Repeat steps with all other dishes.

She pulled herself up on the counter, resting her crutch to the side. Her feet bounced against the cupboard doors gently, like swaying branches on a window. "My legs are a sore spot," she said, keeping her eyes on her toes. A soft melody from the bathroom floated into the room, intertwining with the splash of the sink water. Ida must be singing to Fern to coax her to remain calm while she bathed the girl.

His rhythm didn't falter. "You've never seemed to mind before,"

"I've always had my braces on then," she picked at a fold in her skirt. With her braces strapped to her thighs, she felt as though she were a normal person. As though she didn't have to rely on a machine to get her around. She could hide them under her skirts or show them off, they were her only sense of control she had.

He put a china plate on the drying cloth and paused. He turned to her with one hand in the sink and the other resting on the counter but she kept her gaze on her brown cotton skirt. "What the hell happened to them anyway?"

She pulled at a loose string. "I told you, I was born prematurely." Her guts twisted like worms.

"And that's the only reason?"

She nodded, bending her back to get a better look at the string. Her heart thudded against her ribs at the lie.

He snorted. "Sounds like a shit reason,"

Screw it. If he wanted to know so badly why shouldn't he? It's not like he could clue in who family she was from by just that. Thousands of people live there and hundreds came to the surface.

Without looking up, she said, "Because I was born in the Underground and got sick from the lack of sunlight." She tugged and the string snapped from its hold. "Apparently you can get sick without it. Little baby me was deprived of it like everyone else in that damn city." She shifted to eyes to study the bundles of herbs hanging from their hooks in the ceiling to dry out.

He was silent for a drawn out moment. The tap water trickled in the basin softly, mixing with the splashes of the bath and the slightly out of key melody Ida hummed.

The tap squeaked as he twisted the knob tight, shutting off the water. She didn't look over at him as he finished the final dishes and her mind stumbled over her thoughts. She hadn't said too much. In fact, it was more suspicious that she didn't say anything about her family and avoided the topic. Not only was he clever, but he was just as curious as her, if not as patient.

Was he sleuthing her out as well? The thought never crossed her mind.

"Sunlight's hard to come by down there," he said, startling her from her thoughts.

She cut a glance to him. Her eyes landed on his forearms where scars deep and light crossed over his prominent veins. He twisted his left hand to place a baking pan on the drying towel and her eyes caught sight of a pale, thin line starting from his wrist and ran all the way to his rolled up shirtsleeve. How far did it go? she wondered.

Thalia turned her attention back to her skirt before he caught her gaze. "Incredibly hard." Even for her family, she didn't say. "Do you know much about the Underground?"

He scrubbed the final pan, raising slightly on the balls of his toes to get leverage over the burnt on eggs. "More than the average person. I grew up there,"

"Maybe that's why you're so short," she joked, despite having more questions pile in her brain. She was surprised he admitted to it, he had never divulged in personal information.

But then again, neither did she.

He snorted. "Very mature,"

"Since when did you care about maturity?" She finally turned to him, tilting her head in an oddly playful manner. "You're the one always making crude comments,"

He ran the frying pan under the trickling tap water. "I'm going to beat you with your cane,"

"Again, assaulting a cripple is a punishable offense," she leaned over and flicked the shell of his ear.

She froze her swinging feet and he started at her as though she had grown a second head. Her heart stuttered then took off in a sprint.

She pulled her hand away as though he were going to bite it off. "I'm so sorry." Her mind stumbled and tripped, her tongue felt like it was a cotton ball in her mouth and her words fell around it. "I have a younger brother, it's just something I do." Heat flared at the base of her neck but she kept her face relaxed. There was no way she was going to let him see her flustered like a schoolgirl.

He blinked his gray eyes. He turned back to the pan in his wet hands in thought. Then, he placed it calmly on the towel and dried his dripping hands.

Thalia watched him with a shallow breath. His movements were fluid as he dried his scarred fingers and palms. When he turned to her, with his right hand supporting his weight on the counter, the insomniac bags under his cold eyes were stark against his pale skin in the warm candle light.

Her fingers curled around the lip of the counter. She prepared herself for the sharp comment to fall from his lips.

Then, he raised his hand and flicked her nose.

Surprised, she flinched. A light stinging shot through the cartilage and her eyes watered. She rubbed her smarted nose with her palm.

"Now we're equal," he said. The crows feet around his eyes crinkled.

Thalia had come to recognize that look over the duration of their young companionship. It was a smile.

The night crept on in the way summer evenings do. Slow, with all the time in the world, but somehow speeding by without one noticing.

The two made their respective drinks, Levi refusing to let her make the tea, and sat on the front steps to the home. They watched the few people in the night out dart from the darkness between the glowing gas lamps to the light. The air was sticky against Thalia's skin and the hot drink didn't help her discomfort, but she didn't mind. The wind would blow a cool breeze every few minutes, rustling her thin, dark brown hair around her shoulders.

Levi sat beside her, his shoulder brushing hers on occasion as he drank his bitter drink. The two were silent in the cacophony of the summertime songs. Few lightning bugs were out so late in the season, but the few that were still dancing to the melody of the night twinkled hazily.

Thalia took a long sip. "I'm going to miss you coming in," she said.

"I'll write," he said. "When we get settled, I'll try to visit. No promises though,"

Her lips twitched at the memory of their first conversation. "Don't make too many of those,"

He took a drink in his odd manner. She hoped she would be able to know why he held his cups like that. Why he acted so stiffly around Fern. Why he looked at Ida like she was a ghost haunting him.

But their time had been cut short. Though Thalia had discovered why he was so familiar to her, her curious mind craved more. She wanted to pluck his thoughts in the least sadistic way, a way she was never taught. Not to exploit the information for her own gain, but simply for the satisfaction of knowing a person inside out. To know the traces of his brain and rhythm of his heart and the patterns of his scars.

"Hey, Levi," she said softly into the buzzing of the instincts. He hummed in response. "I'm glad we became friends."

Her dark eyes followed the twirling lightning bugs and her skin prickled at an oddly cool breeze that rustled the plants growing beside them.

His shoulder brushed against hers again for a brief moment. "Don't be such a fucking sap. I'm not dying." he said into his tea. "But I am too." It was so soft that she almost didn't pick it up in the midst of the screaming cicadas, drunken yells from the pub, and whooping chuck-will's-widows.

She smiled into her coffee, grateful for the darkness to mask her peculiarly soft moment.

The Scouting Legion were still a collection of suicidal dumbass's to Thalia, that opinion hadn't changed. She still believed they were fools for rushing out to die and that was a fact in her mind. But she couldn't deny that they were endearing, even if their commander made her hairs stand on edge.

She almost asked Levi about Erwin Smith, but held her tongue. Another letter to Father would be sent and she would receive her answer. She didn't want to rustle the timid connection they had for the sake of her curiosity. Not this time.

And in the way summer nights go, it lazily strolled by with a wolf and a bird sitting side by side.

* * *

_AN: I hope I'm not moving things too quickly or too slowly. This is by far the longest chapter in this story yet! I hope I'm keeping everyone in character, please tell me if you think I'm being OOC. I want to play more with Erwin's devious side because let's face it, the man wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. _

_Thank you to all of those who have reviewed and hearted, you guys help me keep going on. Love you all. _


	8. Eight

_As the Years Go By - Johannes Bornlof_

* * *

"As the Years Go By."

* * *

On September first, a letter had arrived. It had no return address, just her name written in neat, uniform letters. It took all of Thalia's willpower to not rip it open and read it at the dinner table in front of her family.

That night, after Fern was tucked into her sister's bed and the lights were out, she lit a candle and poured over the note.

The Scouts had made it safely to a bustling city. Erwin opted to keep their whereabouts in more of the public eye to earn favor with the civilians there. He gave the address and said to take her time in replying.

The rest of the letter was about him complaining how there wasn't any good tea and the mechanic they did find upsold them horribly and didn't even fix the equipment well.

Thalia smiled as read over the letter again. She could almost hear his soft voice muttering the written words. It made her heart hurt once more.

She fell asleep with the letter on her nightstand, her thoughts racing on what she would reply with.

On October third, she received her second letter. It was somber. They would be going out on their expedition soon for several nights.

Worry clenched her gut, but she wished them good luck, betting him that he couldn't take down more than two Titans by himself.

On November tenth, she received her reply.

He took down five.

* * *

"Thalia, you have another letter!" Ida called as she entered the home.

Thalia didn't look up from her sketching of a new order. She raised her hand above her head and curled her fingers around the paper that Ida smacked in her grasp.

Placing the blueprints aside, she tore open the crisp envelope. Judging by the fullness of it, the latest expedition must have gone wrong. Where Levi failed to say in person, he made up tenfold in writing.

Her brown eyes scanned the papers as she drank in the heavy news. They lost more lives than average due to a mechanical error on a handful of the Scout's ODM gear. Levi was beyond upset, going on for several pages on how incompitent their current mechanic was and how he was going to drag Pops to their HQ.

Just as she got to his simple sign off, Ida gasped from her spot at the table.

Thalia glanced back, a brow raised at her sister. "What's wrong?" She sat up straighter.

Ida stared at the newspaper in her grasp, her blue eyes not reading the words. "Shiganshina," she said. "The wall there was breached. Wall Maria has fallen,"

The echoes and calls of the town faded in Thalia's ears as though she had been submerged underwater. A terrible chill washed over her skin. Maria. That was where the Scouts were. Where Levi was.

Ida let the newspaper fall on the table. She got up and began bustling around the kitchen, unlatching the window to allow the crisp wind of autumn in. "The Scouts are resourceful. They'll be okay,"

Unsteadily, Thalia rose to her feet. Her head swam and the floor shifted under her booted feet. The walls of the cozy home closed in on her, pressing on her chest, her head, her sanity. She needed to get out.

"I'm going to the shop," she said, clutching her sketchbook to her squeezing chest.

The air nipped at her nose and arms as she bounced down the steps, not staying long enough to grab a jacket. Whispers of the news floated around her in the smoky air as the towns folk slowly heard the news. Thalia tried to ignore the painful thud of her heart and the unsteadiness of her hands as she wound through the maze of streets to the shop. She needed to fix something, anything, to regain her shredded composure.

Ida was right, the Scouts were resourceful. They spent days outside the walls, they would be fine.

Levi would be fine.

Shaking off the bone chilling reality with the jangle of her keys as she reached the first door, she paused. The door to the cafe was slightly ajar.

The door frame where the bolt met the wood was splintered, as though someone had kicked it in.

All thoughts of the wall vanished. Glancing behind her shoulder, Thalia scanned the stream of people. None of them seemed out of place, all were ordinary and shopping and -

There. A soldier she didn't recognize stood under a vendor's awning right across the street. The poor man was trying to blend into the crowd with little luck. His ever shifting stance and rifle slung over his shoulder was a beacon to anyone paying attention that he was an outsider. A nervous one at that.

A different chill seeped into Thalia's bones.

Swiftly, Thalia slid into the cafe.

Nothing seemed out of place. The room was silent, as it should be, and all of the chairs were turned over on the tables.

The chill crawled down her spine when she saw the door to the workshop was ajar. She silently placed her sketchbook on one of the tables and moved like a ghost to the door. She bent her ear to the crack, straining to listen.

Voices floated from the shop. Two men, both angry, and Pops. She wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her knife tucked into her braces. It slid out of its holder with a deadly hiss. Taking a steadying breath, she flung open the door.

The men whirled around. Both were thin and frail looking, but Thalia wasn't a fool. She saw the proudful emblem of the Military Police blazing on their breasts and knew under the pompus attitudes was deadly strength.

She digested the scene in twenty seconds. The older man with a five-o-clock shadow had his rifle slung across his shoulder, presumably with the chamber empty. The other, a blonde boy who must have been about her age, had his on the counter a hands breadth away.

Pops was slumped against the shelf directly behind the counter with his face a bloody mess and his hands clutched to his chest. Blood was seeping from them at a dangerous rate.

The older man opened his mouth when the silver knife handle sprouted from his jugular. He slumped backwards on the counter and crumpled to the floor, limbs buckled and bent.

Blood sprayed. It got in the younger man's face, who let out a strangled yell. He stumbled back, wiping vigorously at his eyes as strangled sobs escaped his mouth. Thalia blinked the blood from her lashes. Her stomach clenched.

Thalia didn't hesitate. Moving with wicked speed, her hand shot out and yanked the knife from the corps's neck. Bone and cartilage and muscle raked against the metal with a sick squelch.

The young man had fallen to the ground mid scramble as Thalia slowly stalked towards him, blood trailing down her face like deathly tears.

He scrambled backwards, hands scraping against the rough wood. "No, please no," he whimpered. His back hit the wall and his wide eyes locked onto the red knife.

Thalia crouched in front of him. The knife balanced lazily from her blood soaked fingers. "Why did you hurt the old man?" She asked.

"Please," he said again. His chin trembled.

She raised the tip of the knife to inspect the crimson blood dripping off. "It won't take but a second to have you wind up like your partner,"

He gulped. His Adam's apple bobbed and the tip of Thalia's knife trailed the motion. The Military Police were supposed to be the best of the best, but these two hardly put up a fight. The kid looked as though he was about to wet himself with fear.

Where pity for human life should have been in her chest, cold fury resided.

"We heard that there were some Crows living here," his voice trembled.

Her pounding heart sputtered.

She pressed the tip of the knife to his throat. A thin line of blood escaped the fleshy prison of his skin. "What?" she hissed.

Another whimper left his trembling lips. He was on the verge of tears now. "Crows, Crows," repeated. He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his shoulders into the wall. "The Underground syndicate. My section commander was tipped off that there were some living in the town with the mechanic so we came here. I don't know why he was hellbent on finding them,"

Her ears roared. Red lined her vision like a sketch as she tossed a glance to the stiffening corps of the commander. Someone had tipped them off.

Someone betrayed her family.

"Please," the boy said again. "I have a little brother. He needs me. He won't make it on his own,"

He was looking for sympathy. A way to relieve the increasing pressure of her knife against his soft skin. Sadly, he was searching for something she was simply no longer able to give. No with the knowledge of betrayal pumping through her veins.

Her gaze shifted to Pops, who was carefully watching the slaughter unfold. Pity pooled in his all knowing gaze.

Thalia clicked her jaw. Without a second glance, she murmured, "So do I," and flicked her wrist. Warm, sticky blood spattered on the side of her face and matted in her hair. Gurgling and gasping met her ears as she stood and stalked away.

"Pops," she said as she rounded the bar to his shivering form. "What the hell did they do to you?" She took in his bloodied fists.

He grimaced. "They messed my fingers up, but I'll be alright," he tried to give a gentle smile but the hollow look in his eyes gave away his pain.

Thalia grit her teeth. If they ruined his hands his life's work would be over. Cold fury seeped into her bone marrow. "It's not safe for us here anymore," she gently guided him out of the workshop.

Pops avoided looking at the mangled bodies as she gently pushed him past. He didn't like violence against humans. He said it was a sin to kill your own people, especially when humanity was already on the brink of extinction. Even more so now that the wall was compromised.

A shiver ran down Thalia's spine. She lead them through the back door to the chilly autumn air.

Pops clutched his hands to his shirt to staunch the constant flow of blood. "We can't leave the bodies." His voice was as thin as paper.

"Ida and I will do cleanup duty," she said, pulling him down the winding streets to her house. "Then we'll get Nonna and go home,"

He stumbled on a cobble stone. Thalia grunted as she kept him upright and her legs burned under the effort. They needed to hurry, he was losing too much blood. She slung his arm across her shoulders and pushed forward against the burning lacing through her muscles. Blood dripped down his twisted fingers and seeped into her shirt.

Home. She hadn't been home since she had turned eighteen. Two years from her family had changed her, in what ways she wasn't sure she was proud of. Her heart leapt in both happiness and uncertainty at the knowledge she was heading back.

She took a sharp breath, filling her lungs to the brim of the crisp, smoke filled autumn air. It would be one of her last breaths of fresh air for a long, long time.

As they slowly made it up the steps to the house and closed the door behind, she wished a mournful goodbye to the chirping birds and shining sun. The Underground was unforgiving and she had been granted grace for far too long.

* * *

Time rolled by like a curl of choking smoke in the Underground city. Its smokestacks and filth coated streets were a smudge to the sharp clarity of the world above. While both had beggers, the underworld had fewer working civilians to the point it was common to see them lying by the streets.

While the land above had birds and wildlife calling in the woods, this place had metal smithing and coal mines. Where sunlight had once been in abundance, here it was taxed. Even the gentle kiss of a cool breeze had forsaken those below for the bone chilling drafts of the caves.

Thalia loathed and loved this city.

Above she could go into town and never be recognized. Here, her family clung followed her like a shadow. It defined her, shaped her, morphed her very stature. She was and always will be a Wolfstien in the belly of the caves.

The tender reunion between Thalia and her brothers repaired part of her bleeding heart the military police left behind as the missing piece of the family came home.

She ruffled Kaine's midnight head before he tucked her under his sharp chin. Vincent pulled a fleck of dried blood from a strand of her hair, his lips curling and pulled Ida close. Her brothers held their sisters tightly the first night of their return.

Pops was sent to the only hospital in the city where a talented doctor on their payroll resided. Nonna followed her husband, her spine straight and head held high. The only speck of unease resided the glassy reflection of her eyes.

The morning after their return home, Thalia and Ida met their father at the table in the humble, square dining room.

He sat at the head as always. His suit jacket was dark and spotless, unlike the lint that clung to Thalia's skirts. His nails were cut close and filed and his face was freshly shaved. He must have had a meeting with the Don, she gathered.

The sisters sat on either side of their father. Ida at his right hand as the oldest of his children and Thalia at his left. They sat with their spines straight and hands folded neatly in their laps. Not proper in the sense of the ladies up above who had their social normalities they had to fill, but collected. Calculating.

He regarded them with dark eyes. "What happened?" He asked.

Ida glanced at Thalia, who tilted her chin up in acceptance of telling the report. It was her responsibility today.

So she told him of the soldiers who broke into the shop, of how they knew of the Crows, and how she killed them both, dumping their bodies in a lake far from town.

He listened intently and his face never betrayed his thoughts. The only sign of his mind working was his thumb spinning his silver wedding band around his ring finger.

As Thalia finished, she had a question that was plucking at her brain. Seeing as he appeared to be in a good mood, she took her shot. "Father, I have a question before you begin yours,"

He inclined his head. Thalia resisted the temptation to shoot Ida a glance. She shifted her legs uncomfortably. "Erwin Smith. He knew of you somehow. Who is he to us?"

His fingers stop their spinning. "Right now, he may be the key to our predicament," he said.

Thalia crossed her legs. "Our predicament?" she echoed.

Lorenzo leveled a cool look at his daughters. The blood from Thalia's face drained at the tilt of his chin as studied them. "The MP's ruined David's hands. We have a debt to settle with them, and the commanded is going to help us with that,"

Thalia's heart thudded painfully against her ribs and her guts squirmed in both excitement and dread. "But I killed those men." She knew the meaning behind his words but part of her no longer desired for it to be set into motion. When her father called for a hunt, he didn't stop until he ripped the throat out of his prey.

His lips curled back, baring his white teeth in a wicked smile. "I don't mean those spineless soldiers. It's time for the King to pay."

The command had been uttered by the Don, then. The pendulum was pushed, forever swinging in motion until the death of the king satisfied the bloodlust of the two patriarchal leaders of the Wolfstien family. The Don and his Underboss had been lying in wait for years, biding their time until it was time to strike.

And the time was soon coming.

Sorrow and misfortune will follow the steps of her family to satisfy the death of Thalia's mother and the marring of David's hands. Death rode on the wings of crows. Their wings. The wings of killers.

Lorenzo waved his fingers to Ida in dismissal. "Go to your daughter, I need to speak to your sister." He said.

Ida and Thalia shared a look. Cold, spindly fingers clawed down Thalia's spine as the eldest of the Wolfstien's stood. Ida pressed a kiss to her father's head, bidding him a good morning and flurried out of the room but not without giving one last concerned glance to Thalia.

The constant ticking of the grandfather clock was deafening as Thalia played with her fingers. Lorenzo took his time settling himself, pulling out a cigar and lighting the tip with a lighter. He took a drag and blew out. The smoke swirled and danced in the stale air.

"How have you and Levi gotten along?" He asked.

Thalia paused her skin picking. "We've been getting along just fine. He comes into the shop twice a week,"

"I hear he's a captain now?" He posed it as a question but Thalia knew he was aware of Levi's promotion. He always knew what went on up above his kingdom. Though he was an Underboss to the Don, he had eyes everywhere, above and below.

"Yes, he was promoted in June." She watched Lorenzo take another drag of the round cigar. He held it loosely in his fingers, twirling it in thought.

"I don't wish to discourage your relations with him, Thalia. In fact I want to encourage anything that may happen between you two," he said, not meeting her eyes for once.

Thalia sat up straighter. "Father?" She asked carefully. Her heart sped and the iced fingers dug painfully into her skin. "Didn't you want me to keep our family a secret from him?"

He took a longer drag of the heavy tobacco. "Yes, but things have changed," he said around the smoke. "Should anything happen between you two, it would be a benefit to the family,"

"How so?"

His steel eyes met her own and her heart shriveled like a prune. "We would have an inside source to the Scouts. Erwin is a clever man and Levi is close to him as his right hand. Should the two of you become anything more than friends, we would know more of their intentions,"

Thalia pursed her lips at what her father was getting at. The fingers of dread tightened their claws, sinking into her spine. "You want me to seduce him?"

He tapped his cigar onto the priceless table, ridding the tip of the ashes. "That is up to you. I am merely encouraging anything that may happen. However, a close friendship does offer benefits as well. In due time you can tell him of the family, but not now." He stood, snuffing out the cigar in the crystal ashtray, signaling the conversation over.

Her mind raced in calculation and her brow creased in thought. "Father," she turned her head to meet his gaze. The cold claws raked across her back. "What did we do to him? Why do I have this feeling that I know him?"

He snapped his suit jacket straight to rid of the nonexistent wrinkles. "He's about five years older than you. Your mother knew his," a dark cloud passed over his face at the mention of Thalia's late mother, "and you may have played together at one point. As for what the Don did, we owed Erwin a debt. He needed a soldier that was stronger than average and gambled on Levi, which he won of course. He asked and we delivered."

Her crease deepened. "You betrayed him?" She didn't know why it unnerved her. Maybe because her mother had once been friends with his and that alone felt like an act of betrayal of her trust.

"We had a debt that needed to be repaid," his smooth voice lowered in warning. "Business is business."

Knowing that prodding more would only upset him, she nodded her head, playing the obedient role. "Of course, but the business has shifted. He's far too intelligent and would know something was wrong if I suddenly started flirting with him. I'm afraid my friendship with him is all I can offer." Not to mention the thought of lying to him even more than she already had made her chest ache.

Lorenzo brushed her hair in rare affection. "That's all I can ask for."

As her father brushed out of the room, Thalia chewed on a new challenge for her to face. Obey her father's wishes or shrug it off and do what she thought would benefit the family.

Her finger twirled around the ribbon in her hair, the pads of her fingertips rubbing the soft fabric. The ticking clock grew louder in the suffocating silence.

Seducing Levi was out of the question, her actions have never been to the level of flirtatious. And while her bones ached with the knowledge that it would be months before seeing him again (she was no fool, the Don was going to order them underground tonight) she just couldn't bring herself to lie to him like that.

No, she would push the proposition her father lay before her off the table. Anything, any touch, any smile, any kindness that passed between the two would be genuine. Her intuition had yet to be incorrect and she wasn't going to play a losing hand.

* * *

Her twenty-first birthday went by silently on October twelve.

November passed. Thalia filled her days with sketching designs for Pops to bring to life in hopes his hands would soon heal. But his fingers had been broken. The men had crushed each one messily, they couldn't even be methodical in their useless endeavor. Their doctor was unsure if he would ever regain full mobility again and the thought of him never recovering made her throat tighten.

December came. It grew chillier and sickness swept through the dark city. Most days Thalia was reduced to a crumpled ball with unbearable pains coursing through her leg muscles, her tendons, her bones, stabbing to the marrow. She bit her lips into a bloody mess to stifle her sobs of agony as she burrowed into the quilts her mother had sewn years ago, craving her gentle embrace and the way she used to stroke her hair throughout the winter nights.

During the long days and even longer nights, her thoughts wandered to Levi. Since being forced underground like animals, all communication had been cut off from the surface. She couldn't help the squeezing of her chest and the tapping of her fingers each time her thoughts drifted to him.

She missed him and the conversation with her father had nothing to do with it. She finally admitted it to herself at three o' clock in the morning as tears slid down her face in her silent suffering. She missed his fidgeting presence clashing with her constant stillness. She missed the curl of his lip when he bit out a sarcastic remark and the wrinkling of his nose when he saw how greasy she was at the end of the day.

In the flickering candle light and with the crackle of the sad fire as her only source of company, she wrote letters she would send as soon as winter broke. Pops and Nonna were anxious to return to their cottage and Ida refused to stay in the hole in the ground for long, claiming the air was going to make her daughter sick (which was a fair point) and that she needed to keep her business running smoothly.

And finally, spring arrived. March swept upon them in a flurry of excitement and preparations to return to the sun kissed surface were made. It was decided, with grumbling from Thalia, that Vincent would accompany them and stay for the first week before returning home.

Thalia's heart leapt when the day finally came. And though pains still laced through her lower body to the point where she crumpled and she had to be carried, she refused to stay another month to let them pass.

Sunlight streamed through the trees as the little group ascended the stairs from the underworld. It kissed Thalia's gaunt skin and warmed her frozen core. Her pupils constricted painfully at the intense light but she didn't care. Her thoughts were consumed with the reality of sunlight, of green grass, the deep smell of the earth, and the chilled breeze of spring. She didn't realize how badly her body craved the surface until her chest ached with joy.

Home.

She was going home.

* * *

_AN: Wrote three chapters while on the road from vacation - please let me know if things seem odd/incorrect!_


	9. Nine

_Dream a Little Dream of Me - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong_

* * *

"March Into the Sun."

* * *

Spring was in full bloom in the little town. The flowers were bright and open and trees were fully green and the sky was ever blue and wide. The mornings were still chilled but the sun would make its grand appearance and warm the frozen earth.

Ida ordered Thalia to stay in the cafe and ring up customers while her legs regained their strength - it was a request made by their doctor that Ida was determined was kept. And though her hands itched to be working once again, Thalia relented. A chill ran down her spine at the thought of going back into the shop where she found Pops beaten and broken.

So, she bided her time at the front counter of the quaint cafe on a stool. If she had to move, she would try her crutches but there were occasions where Vincent had to be called from the back kitchen and help her limp around.

Her guts squirmed and her pride pushed against her throat and chest. She was once again back to where she started.

A week slid by. Thalia had sent the letters to Levi in hopes she would receive a reply by the end of the month. The letters explained her absence by saying Pops had gotten ill and they had to leave for a family doctor in the capitol. She knew she couldn't tell the truth, not now or any time soon. Not if she wanted to keep him close.

In late March, as the sun was sliding behind the mountain the Scouts used to reside, the bell to the empty cafe rang cheerfully.

Thalia glanced up from her journal where she was yet again designing a project for Pops to tinker with. A forced, welcoming smile pulled at her lips then immediately fell at the sight of the customer.

All of Thalia's nerve endings lit on fire at the sight of Levi standing in the doorway, his hand still wrapped around the doorknob. Dying sunlight spilled around him, outlining his smaller stature in darkness. She wanted to shoot to her feet but was forced to stay rooted to her stool or else she would crumple in a pained heap.

He let the door slam shut behind him. Neither said a word as he stalked to the front with heavy, booted steps. They scuffed the floor as he came to a stop. For once, the two were of equal height as Thalia curled her spine involuntarily.

Though most of his person was sharp and orderly with his crisp uniform and warm cloak wrapped around his lithe shoulders, she saw minuscule signs of disarray most would miss. The bags under his eyes had deepened in color and new lines were etched into his face. His hair had grown slightly unkempt and fell further into his dark eyes.

Eyes that fell flat on her.

"Levi -" she began, her voice soft and hands trembling. Her fingers wrapped tightly around her pencil to keep him from seeing them shake.

Her bones sang a melody of melancholy - she had missed him more than she let herself realize.

Once again, she crushed the words of her father like a worm under her boot.

"Where the hell have you been?" Levi said.

Thalia almost flinched at the low tone of his voice. But she kept her head high and met his dark face, refusing to back down. He was pissed.

"Did you receive my letters?" She asked carefully. Vincent and Ida were in the back finishing up an order, hopefully she could calm him before his cap exploded. Though she had never seen him truly angry, she didn't want to test it.

His jaw worked. He was trying so hard to keep calm. "What letters?"

"I sent some as soon as I returned home,"

"The base we were at was destroyed by Titans, dumbass. The whole wall fell." The muscles in his jaw clenched again.

Thalia wanted to slam her head into the counter. Of course, she was a dumbass. Once she had been clever and would have known but she was so anxious to let him know she was alright that the practical thought didn't even cross her mind.

Thalia turned from his dark gaze to her journal, flipping the cracked leather cover shut. "You're right, I'm a dumbass. There was a family emergency, we had to head to the capitol where some family lives. We stayed until the winter was over, we returned last week," she lied easily.

"No shit," he ran his fingers through his hair. It was unnerving to see him so disheveled. What had him so apprehensive?

She studied him cautiously. Her finger tapped on the smooth leather of her journal. "But I'm home,"

Levi's eyes swept the empty chairs and freshly washed off tables. The sun hit his sharp cheekbones, causing them to look like a hollowed skeleton. "Don't leave like that again," his voice was gravily, like a stone scraping against another.

Thalia raised a brow. "I'm not one of your soldiers, Levi." She wasn't going to take orders from him, no matter how much she cherished their friendship.

His face snapped to hers but she didn't shrink at the fire crackling under his gaze. He leaned his forearms on the counter, raising on his toes ever so slightly so that their noses were level. His breath fanned against her face. "I don't give a damn. Don't leave me like that ever again,"

Thalia's brows furrowed. Then, a thought crossed her mind. It made sense, of course, why he was so strict on regiments and keeping to a schedule. So much of his life so far was dictated out of fate and chance, any sense of stability was a precious gift. So when she left without having warning, it shook him. Badly.

Be patient with them, Nonna's voice echoed in her mind. Being patient with a man demanding control over her was going to take all of her little, shriveled heart's willpower to not slit his throat. But she would try to work with him.

She didn't know if it was because she missed him so badly that she wanted to feel his skin or that she wanted him out of her face, but her free hand gripped his chin between her thumb and forefinger. He stiffened under her touch and he tried to pull away but she held fast.

Her face was as hard as granite and she spoke softly as though she were talking to a wounded animal. "One, you don't order me like one of your subordinates. I'm your equal, I don't give a damn if you're a captain of some insane squad." Her face softened a fraction. "Two, you have to trust me. I'm not going to abandon you. You're my friend and I'm going to hold on as tightly as I can,"

His face twisted and his eyes widened. In their close proximity she could see strands of gray in his black hair. "Get out of my face," he murmured, not harshly.

Saints, she had missed him.

Thalia grinned wolfishly, enjoying the upper hand. Not letting him off the hook, she bumped her forehead against his and drew back. Physical affection wasn't something she shied away from. Her mother had showered her and her siblings in it to the point where they found it odd not to brush hands or lean into one another in the most innocent of ways.

When she died, their bonds only tightened. It was peculiar that a family full of killers found physical connections so easy with one another. A contradiction wrapped in a tight, green ribbon.

Thalia's hand fell from his chin, but not without her thumb brushing his jaw once. He shifted, unsure of her odd affections. The sounds of Ida and Vincent clanging in the kitchen in the back echoed in the empty front room. His head tilted to the side as he tried to get a glance around her shoulder.

"Your sister's husband?" he asked when Vincent walked by the doorway, flour stains on his suit pants.

Thalia leaned her chin on her palm, noticing the shift in his tone. His shoulders relaxed and he sank on his forearms. "My eldest brother, Vincent." Would he had known her brothers? He didn't seem to recognize Ida and she would have been involved with his communications back then. Perhaps they were in the clear of him recognizing them.

"How many siblings do you have?"

It was an innocent question. Thalia battled on telling the truth or not when a voice spoke from behind her, "Who's this?"

The woman turned on her stool to face her brother. He stood with his shoulder against the doorframe and arms crossed. Flour was dusted across his cheekbone and right brow like fairy dust, and covered his expensive slacks. He studied Levi with a guarded face but no recognition sparked in his eyes.

"You have most of the ingredients on you, Vince," she pointed out. When he gave her a hard look, she straightened but she wasn't afraid. He was playing the role of a Syndicate's son. "This is Levi, Captain of the Scouting Legion," she said. Her brow raised as she studied his smooth face.

Ah, there was the recognition. His brows lowered a fraction but not enough for Levi to notice. A charming smile swept across his face, all suspicion supposedly gone. He stepped forward and extended his hand to the smaller man. Vincent towered over the Little Captain by a good foot, like a giant and a child.

Or Titan and human.

The men shared formalities stiffly. Just like the evening in July when he had dinner at her house, Levi became somewhat reserved. But a sliver of defyance raged in his eyes that wasn't there before as he tilted his head up to look at Vincent.

Footsteps clicked to the little group. "Why don't you two come into the back?" Ida asked, leaning her hands against the doorframe to the kitchen. "It's time to close up shop but I have a few things that need taste testing,"

Vincent nodded, the overly charming grin still plastered to his face. "That sounds great, Ida." He extended his arm to Thalia. "Come on, I'll help you,"

A sliver of annoyance slid in Thalia's chest, circling around her heart until every beat stung. "I got it," she said. Vincent's brows shot up but he remained silent. Levi rounded the counter carefully, shooting a peculiar glance at her sister once again.

Just as Thalia settled her full weight onto both feet, her legs buckled.

Two sets of hands gripped her upper arms and shoulders just before she could hit the floor. A hiss of pain escaped her lips as her arms stung at the jolt on the ball and socket joints.

The men steadied her. She leaned to the left, opting to put her weight on Levi for the moment, surprising both her and her siblings at the choice.

Ida raised her brows at her siblings but shrugged, turning back to her work in a swirl of blue skirts.

Levi took Thalia's weight without question, nodding to the sweet smelling kitchen. He wrapped his arm around her waist to hold her upright and the two slowly took a step before her leg gave way once again.

Vincent wasted no time sweeping her into his arms. "Allow me." He pushed into the kitchen, leaving Levi to walk with tight shoulders behind. The strand of annoyance cinched her heart tighter, pushing blood up to her neck in a flare of heat.

Thalia was settled on a stool in front of a smooth, large square wooden table littered with flour, dough, bowls, and different arrays of used cooking utensils. The kitchen was large, much larger than the front room. A counter lined the opposite walls and two stoves filled the front. Two large, double pane windows were open above the counter that lay to the left, allowing a cool spring breeze to stir the stuffy air.

The sweet scent of pastry dough invaded Thalia's nose and set her stomach grumbling. A cooking book with flour and sugar specs lay to her right. The pages were crumpled, stained, and dog eared from the constant use. Small scribbles filled some of the margins and some words were crossed out as Ida made her adjustments and modifications to the recipes.

Levi settled beside Thalia silently. She kept her eyes from his.

The two sat side by side once more, watching as Ida ordered Vincent about the kitchen. It was humorous seeing a small, petite woman order such a big man about, but he listened to his older sister and did as he was told (though not without snorting and making sharp comments).

"Where are you guys stationed at now?" Thalia asked Levi softly to keep her siblings from eavesdropping.

Levi kept his eyes trained on the two cooks who were now busy stirring a pot at the face-melting stove. "Within this wall, but on the north side,"

"Isn't that four days ride from here?"

He nodded. "Depends how fast you're riding,"

Thalia let the information sink in. "So what were you doing here?"

He cut her a glance that she couldn't decipher. "I heard a rumor that the shop was up and running once again,"

"So you took a four day vacation from your work to just check out a rumor?" She couldn't believe it.

"I was curious."

*Curious?* She didn't believe it.

"And we're heading to inspect possible new recruits," he said. "Erwin wants me to form a specialty squad,"

A chill ran down Thalia's spine at the mention of the commander's name. "What for?" She cut a glance to her siblings. Ida's shoulders were taught and Vincent's head was tilted in their direction as they rolled out dough and stirred the pot.

For the first time in her life, Thalia wanted her siblings to leave her alone.

Levi took notice. His eyes narrowed and he tilted his head towards hers slightly. "It's going to be our elite squad. It's been in the works for a while but we just got the clear from the brass. Petra will be put on it,"

"She's only fifteen," Thalia said, glancing at her siblings again. Though they were pretending to not listen, she knew they were. They were Wolfstiens, they were always listening.

Levi swept his hands across the flour littered counter, pushing the grains into his scarred palms. "Age doesn't matter if you're skilled enough." He stood and made his way to the sink basin under the window.

An argument clawed up Thalia's throat but she kept her mouth shut. She had no room to talk. A third glance at her brother and sister informed her that they all agreed, but were facing the same dilemma. They were brought up to scheme and murder and lie since they could talk, they had human blood on their hands.

Thalia's fingertips had just been coated with the blood of a young man, a fact she planned to hide from Levi.

The pastries were pulled from the oven and the four of them ate in tense conversation. Vincent went under the guise of being a professor in a small town near the capitol to explain away his professional attire. The two men talked about their careers for a brief twenty minutes and when the conversation lulled, Ida clapped her hands together with a cloud of flour flying into the air and ordered Thalia and Levi out.

"Levi, there's a broom in the corner and here's a rag to wash the tables," she handed the man a damp cloth, "Vince, carry Lia to the register so she can tally." The men jumped into action like a coiled spring, grateful to move away from the awkward conversation.

Thalia's brows furrowed as Vince bent to carry her. Ida just gave her an innocent smile and twirled away with a hum on her lips. The eldest was scheming, but what of Thalia was unsure.

Vincent lowered her again on the stool in the dark main room and she said her thanks. Vincent lit the lantern in the middle of the room and rounded back to her, pausing to watch Levi wipe down the already clean tables, his hand resting on her shoulder. "Father told me that you two have become friends," his voice was just under a mummer.

Thalia began to work, pulling the register open and flipping through the bills. "Did you know him?" She matched his low tone.

"Not well, I knew his members more,"

She almost broke her mask of calm, but she held fast. "Members?"

His fingers squeezed into her shoulder comfortingly before releasing. "He was a leader of a small gang, it was more of a nuisance to the MP's. They were just a boy and a girl, Farlan and Isabel. Farlan and I went to middle school together," he ruffled her hair and she swatted at his hand. "I'll help Ida so we can go pick up Fern from her play date." He disappeared into the kitchen, calling after his sister.

_Farlan,_ Thalia paused her counting. Ida had said those two were her prized customers and always came in with Levi, but he never mentioned them.

She looked up to him, hair falling into her lashes. Sadness crept into her chest, filling her with a sensation that was foreign to her: Pity.

"I can feel your eyes on me," he said, not looking up from carefully wiping down the last table.

She slipped a bill under her fingernail in thought. "When do you head back?" She asked. Now was not the time to inquire of them, not with her siblings within earshot.

"Tomorrow morning. The rest of my squad is stationed at the inn downtown," he straightened and began flipping the chairs onto the table.

She nodded, another feeling pushing her stomach to her toes. "Of course. I assume your squad is waiting for you?" She began counting the coins.

Levi strode to the counter and knelt before the display case. "They're probably at the pub pretending to be adults,"

She paused her tallying to peer down at him. He had taken off his cloak and jacket and has his shirt sleeves rolled up his forearms. She spied the long scar on his left forearm once again, it seemingly glowed white in the dim light. As if feeling her stone eyed gaze, he looked up through his lashes with his own.

Thalia swallowed dryly. "I missed you," she said.

His crows lines crinkled in the flicker of the lantern light. "Again with the sappiness,"

Irritation slushed in her chest. "Sorry I'm being a good friend," she huffed. She flicked a cheap coin she had tallied at him, nailing his ear.

At least her aim was still good.

He picked up the coin and inspected it. It flashed in the warm flickering light. He stood and placed it on the counter. "Hurry up," he said. He curled his fingers around the broom he had placed by him and began sweeping.

Thalia pulled a face at his back but finished the math quickly, doing the majority of it in her head. She pushed the stinging in her chest to the side and focused on the sums.

By the time she had triple checked her work the Little Captain had finished his tedious cleaning. He stood in the center of the room, pulling his shirt sleeves down to his wrists and shrugged in his jacket. He seemed at ease in the middle of the room, a halo of lantern light plunging his hair and eyes into darkness.

Thalia wished she could walk to him.

"Be ready in fifteen minutes?" Ida asked from the doorway.

Thalia snapped from her delusional daydream. "Of course," she said.

Ida beamed. "Perfect. I'll make sure Vince is spotless,"

Thalia bit at her lip harshly. Her fingers tapped on her thigh and she felt Levi's eyes on her. Cool, reserved, calculated.

She met his gaze head on, straightening her spine. "Winter makes my legs spasm," she explained, reading the question in his face. "Being underground didn't help and my braces are currently useless until I gather my strength,"

Tentatively, in a way that was unlike him, he stepped up to the counter. His eyes flickered to the kitchen over her shoulder, where Vincent was. "So that's why your brother has to carry you,"

She nodded, her throat swelling in shame. In embarrassment of having to be catered for in front of the person she didn't want to appear weak to. "It'll take a few weeks before I can walk fully again." And months of intense workouts. Her leg muscles had deteriorated painfully, being a symptom of her weakness.

He leaned his side on the counter. "Do you ride?"

"A bit. Why?"

"I'm seeing if I have to ride the whole four days every time one of those shit recruits ruins some equipment,"

Her tapping escalated with her heart but she kept her face cool. "I can see what I can do, no promises though." She didn't mention the probability of Pops losing mobility in his hands.

He snorted. "I hope it's a promise you don't keep, I don't want to find you fallen off your horse. We start missions in a month, but I'll see you after. I'm sure there will be something broken." He straightened, flinging his cloak around his shoulders. "I should be heading back anyway,"

Her restless fingers traveled to the ribbon in her hair. "Be safe,"

"Lia-"

She waved her free hand. "I know, the sappiness." Her fingers worked at the knot. "But you're getting this," she pulled the ribbon out, her hair falling around her shoulders messily. She held it out and he stared at it with eyes narrowed, like it would bite him. The strand fell on either side of her curled palm.

After a beat, she was about to pull back in a prideful shame when his hand curled around hers. The pads of his fingers were rough from harsh use like hers as they brushed across her skin, curling the ribbon around his fingers. Carefully, he pulled it from her grasp and her hand fell along with a shard of her waning soul.

He dipped his head in thanks and stuffed the evergreen ribbon into his breast pocket. "I'll be back in May,"

"You better, I'll want that back to tie my hair back," she quirked the edge of her lip but the spark in her eyes were warning enough.

His lips thinned and his eyes crinkled. "If you insist." His fingers rubbed against one another and his eyes bounced from her to the kitchen. He shifted and tilted his head in farewell.

Her heart twisted with the turn of his boots on the floor and when he reached the door, he gave her one last glance. "I missed you, too. I'll see you in two months."

The tightness in her chest released, allowing her to breathe easily as she watched his blood soaked wings fly from the shop.

* * *

_AN: Please critique! :)_


	10. Ten

_Ida's Theme: When You Come Back Down - Nickel Creek_

* * *

"Green."

* * *

Time passed slowly but quickly, like sands slipping through tightly clenched fingers. Pop's hands never fully healed, and over the months of gut wrenching anger and shouts of frustration in sleepless nights, Thalia was forced into the role of the head mechanic far too soon. She broke projects, slit her fingers (she now knew why Pop's hands were so scarred), and floundered like a fish out of water. But Pop's stayed by her side, steady and gentle as always and guided her through those trembling months.

Honeysuckle bloomed in May and just as Levi promised, he arrived at the shop but not without a few companions in tow.

Goggles pressed Thalia's mousy hair out of her eyes as she sketched a new weapon design her father wanted built for the coupe. It was sleek like a rifle but was designed to shoot yards farther and with vastly higher accuracy. Where the pin sight should be placed, a long, thin magnification scope would be mounted, allowing the user to shoot from over seven hundred yards away. A ten round magazine would be implemented, blowing the Military Police's one round firearms out of the water.

Weapon designing was her specialty and now the talents she kept hidden were coming to light.

The bell chimed and the regular scent of the bakery floating in with several sets of boots following the ring.

The woman looked up, her gray eyes narrowing at the newcomers. She stood, closing her notebook carefully. "Welcome to my shop," she said smoothly, her chest caving at the words.

Levi strode in, dressed in his standard fatigues with four companions. Petra stood beside him, bags lining her once bright eyes and stress lines etched into her youthful face. A towering blond stood beside her, solid as a bolder.

"Is this your squad?" She asked, nodding to the other two men that stood like phantoms behind their captain. The other two carried two burlap sacks on their strong shoulders. More ODM gear was destroyed on this attempt, then.

Levi inclined his head. "You already know Petra. May I introduce Eld, Oluo, and Gunther. All of which are on Squad Levi,"

A scoff escaped her lips and she leaned her elbows on the counter. "A bit pretentious of a name, isn't it?" They shifted closer to their small captain like shadows, an action her lips curled wickedly at. "Put the gear on the table. I'll look at it in a few hours."

Levi's finger ran along a dangling arm above his head, carefully pushing in a coiled spring. "Could you look at it now?" The men put the sacks down with a thunk on the bar and Thalia gave them a withering glance.

"I'm afraid I have another order to attend to. You're not getting special treatment from me today." In truth, she was going to look at the gear and get it fixed quickly. But she was in a particularly bitter mood and wanted to tap at the waters of his new squad, an investigation tactic she wasn't going to make an exception on.

"The Scouts need this gear as soon as possible, we don't have time to sit around in this dingy shop with freaky arms," the curly haired man said, pointing at the dangling limbs.

She bristled at the comment. She drew to her full height and curled her lip, looking at him from down the bridge of her straight nose. "What's your name, kid?" He couldn't have been much older than sixteen.

He puffed out his chest and crossed his lanky arms, as though he were trying to appear taller than he was. "Oluo," he said it like she was supposed to know it.

"Oluo." she tested it out. It tasted bitter in her mouth. "This farmer needs his plow fixed or we don't get any wheat this autumn. Wheat means bread, and bread means food." Minus a point for him. "There's a lovely tavern you can go eat or drink at, I'm sure Cindy will love the prospect of customers. It'll be done in the morning." Another sleepless night. Most of her nights had been sleepless as of late, chalk full of backed up orders she desperately sifted through.

The big blond man sighed, smacking Oluo on the base of the skull swiftly. Oluo swore and the man leveled her with a weary look. "He didn't mean anything about it. The arms are off putting but you're a mechanic so it makes sense,"

"We're just happy you can fix the gear at all," Petra said smoothly.

"And they never break after you do tweak them," the last man said.

The peacekeepers, then. A hotshot and three soldiers with calm heads on their shoulders. Soldiers that needed to leave and let her work.

Thalia tightened the muscles under her eyes in a subtle squint at Levi. He answered by taking a deep breath, tilting his raven head to the clothed gear. An understanding passed between them.

"Just get it fixed," he said, turning his shoulder.

She gave a mock salute. "Yes sir, Little Captain," she muttered. Levi's mouth twitched as he turned to stalk out the door and though his squad bristled, they followed their commanding officer.

However, they didn't get far when Oluo opened his mouth and muttered, "What a bitch,"

Thalia froze. Blood roared in her ears and her vision lined with red. For the briefest of moments, she envisioned stabbing the kid in the jugular with her screwdriver or shoving his face into the wall. Her grease stained fingers twitched with the desire to pull out her throwing knife and at least nick him. A little scratch didn't hurt anyone.

"Apologize." Levi's soft voice cut through the air like a blade.

The team froze, Petra and the blond halfway out the door, and the other three still in the shop. Oluo frowned, the creases deepening his weathered skin to where he looked like an old man.

Levi's face was a masked storm raging beneath flesh and bone. The bags under his eyes were a stain on his canvas of pale skin and though his frame was small in comparison to Oluo, he still managed to loom over the boy.

Thalia's boots thudded slowly around the bar. She looped her fingers through the straps crossing across her hips that kept her braces up. A wicked grin cut her face at the sight of their faces twisting in confusion (except Petra, who had already seen her braces) at the sight of a cripple not just standing, but striding on sturdy legs. Legs pushed to their limit in every aspect. When she had last seen Levi, her trousers hung loosely around the skin and bone. Now, they were still loose, but filled out enough to be defined under the material.

She was grease stains and wiry muscle with misfortune crawling at her heels.

Oluo took in her stiff spine and tilted chin. After visibly slumping his shoulders and twisting his face that reminded her suspiciously like Levi, he muttered an apology.

Thalia leaned her back on the lip of the bar, crossing her right boot over her left. "Apology accepted." _Liar._ She would find a way to get back at the boy. No one called her a bitch and walked away unscathed, even if they were just a child.

The little clique left and Petra gave her a beaming smile. "I'll visit when I have time," the girl told Thalia.

Thalia's cold heart warmed a degree. Her smile lost part of its edge at the slight tremble of Petra's upper lip. She gave Levi a look that read, _See me later, _and though he just blinked, she knew he would come.

He always came.

* * *

"So you're walking again," Levi said. Rarely did he pose his questions like one. He let them fall flat like a command. His whole presence was a command wrapped in human flesh.

Thalia propped her chin in her fist, scribbling out more designs for the new weapon. Levi stood across from the bar with one arm leaning on the wooden top, watching her freshly washed hands work the math to the gun magazine.

She hummed, crossing out a problem that didn't add up. "Vince pushed me pretty hard. The sunlight's helping, my skin has been getting darker,"

"You're not a corpse anymore. More of a ghost,"

She scribbled out another mistake, lowering her brows. "Thanks,"

"Even your hair is lighter,"

She hummed, pressing the tip of her pencil down in thought.

"But you're still fairly thin,"

She exed out another mistake, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "Levi-"

"Probably not drinking your milk," he peered at her notebook. "That's not correct," he pointed at a simple addition error.

She dropped her pencil on the paper. "Really now?" she snapped, lifting her chin from her fist to meet his eyes. Her gray eyes blinked as his filled her vision like two moons in the sky. She caught her heart before it could thud against her ribcage. "Get out of my face,"

"You're on edge today," he said. Something in his eyes shifted, like a cloud passing over the moon.

She took a steadying breath. She was on edge and had been since March. After she was informed she would be the official mechanic on hand. The pressure of the responsibility had been pressing on her chest like a ton of bricks, snapping her ribs until only a few kept her organs from falling out.

She opened her palm to lean her chin on it but he snatched her wrist quickly, studying the skin. "What the hell happened?" he asked.

Three thin, white lines from her thumb to her pinky marred the once empty skin. "It was an accident. I was working with some new tools," she tugged her wrist from his grip. He let go reluctantly, his equally marred fingers brushing across the flesh.

"Be careful," he said.

"No shit," she replied and winced at the narrowing of his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm taking over the shop and the stress has made me anxious." One of her anxieties. Her family planning on overthrowing the government was a definite second.

He leaned back, keeping his palms braced fully on the counter. "Already? I thought you were still an apprentice,"

She picked at the skin under her nails, focusing on the cracked, pale skin. "Pops's hands were badly injured. There was an accident." Before she could catch it, her heart squeezed at the lie. "I'm now in charge but he does what he can, which isn't much. They aren't as steady anymore. So while he's been working on his project, I've been running the shop." She clamped her mouth shut, sensing the build up of words behind her lips. Saints, if only she could just _tell him_ why she wanted to pull her hair out by the roots and scream until her throat ached. But she couldn't. She was bound to silence until the Don made his move. A move that was slow in the making but deadly accurate.

Levi's fingers taped to a steady beat on the wood. Always in motion. He could never be still for longer than a minute, as though the effort were too great for him to exert.

"Is that why you look like a pile of shit?" he asked, though not unkindly. Throughout the year of their friendship, Thalia was deft at knowing when he was insulting her or was concerned without knowing how to voice it in a normal way.

Though Thalia had been raised in a den of killers, her mother had instilled the ability to voice her emotions. A lesson she had not practiced in years. Better to shove them aside and carry on than dwell on such selfish ideals.

Thalia brushed her fingers through her hair, strands snagging on her jagged nails. "I've been eating better," she argued.

He raised a brow. "Had you not been?" His eyes did a sweep of her hunched form. A piece of her, the weak and childish side, wanted to shrink under the scrutiny of the action. Bags as heavy as his lined her eyes, making her already pale and sunken face even more gaunt. Though her legs had strengthened, her heart would beat a little too much, sometimes skipping into her throat.

She waved her hand in front of her face, like waving off a nat. "I'm fine. I'm stressed, but once I get more comfortable it'll be alright,"

He pursed his lips. "Maybe I should just force you to Wall Sina if you can't take care of yourself,"

Though the sentiment was sweet, her guts squirmed at the idea of being taken care of again. "I'm fine, Levi." Her fingers picked at her pencil, scribbling a note by the equation she was puzzling out.

"Like hell you are,"

With her throat closing and heart trembling, she dropped her pencil and slammed her palms to the rough wooden counter. Uncharacteristic fire flamed behind her eyes. "Your concern has been registered, but I would appreciate it if you cooled it." She spoke lowly but the force of her words were enough for him to snap his jaw shut.

Her heart twisted on its strings in her chest at the lost expression that filtered over his face and she forced herself to feel the pain. Pain she deserved a thousand times over.

Then, he snapped. His hand shot out, fingers yanking at her collar to pull her to eye level. Her arms strained at the effort of keeping her torso somewhat up and not completely flat on the bar.

Her nose brushed his. Her eyes widened and his narrowed. Her brain hissed at her to sock him a good one but she curled her fingernails into the wood in retaliation.

Something dangerous lurked behind his cold eyes. A deadly light that set her nerves on edge and warning bells ringing. Her biceps tensed.

"Levi," she said slowly. Wood bit into the skin of her fingertips painfully, digging into the callouses. Her shirt collar bit into her windpipe, making breathing a struggle. His breath hit her face in rapid puffs. She had never seen him livid to the point of lashing out.

It sent a bolt of electricity through her nerves, pulling her eyes wide and alert.

His jaw worked and his mouth parted. The tips of his hair tickled her forehead. Then, he closed his eyes, took a breath, and slowly, gently, uncurled his fingers from her shirt collar. And though his hands fell from the fabric of the clothing, giving her freedom, she stayed still.

Gently, despite there being beads of sweat across her brow, she pressed her forehead against his. Two full moons filled her gaze for the second time. "Now look who's on edge," she said. He snorted softly. Slowly, he blinked, sucking in a second calming breath down his lungs. "Care to share?" Though her anxieties roared, she forced them down into the abyss of her gut. She had an inkling why he was suddenly upset.

How many of his friends survived?

"There were plenty of casualties during this expedition," he said, void of emotion. He had gone flat - a term Ida had coined to describe his pattern of shutting down.

_Think of him as Fern,_ she told herself. Fern, who was prone to nightmares and had to sleep with her mother or aunt. Fern, who clung to Levi's leg when he came to visit.

She pressed harder, her nose touching his. "We had to take civilians with us this time," He finished.

Thalia's jaw fell slack. "What?" Her fingers curled even further into the wood, digging sharply into her skin but she didn't care. She needed the stabilization. Yes, she murdered, she had torn families apart by killing husbands or wives, but never had they marched civilians to die like _cattle._

He grit his teeth, the anger seeping into his breathing like poison. "There were too many refugees from the wall falling. The King had to do it to keep food from running short,"

"Bullshit." Since when did the King give a damn about his people?

"Talk like that could get you killed," he said.

"I'll take my chances." She would kill whoever tried. She was painfully aware of the hypocrisy that flew in her mind but she just couldn't deny the twist of her gut and the shaking of her hands at the knowledge of the King slaughtering his people.

The embers of her hatred grew, fed by the curse of knowledge. Now she was ready for the hell that would rise with the rebellion. Whatever the cost, she desired to see the King's head roll with every fiber of her being.

Thalia's fingers found the nape of his skull. She curled her bruised fingertips into the short strands of his hair, as though he would disappear at any second. Her nose pressed onto the side of his, the tip just under his eye. "Stay safe for me," she said, closing her eyes.

"Now look who's giving orders," he said. She tugged at the strands of his hair. Then, a soft sigh escaped his lips and he tilted his head so his mouth hovered over the left corner of hers. "I'll be fine. This mission wasn't the worst I've experienced."

She almost asked what had been, but she kept her mouth shut. Soon. She would inquire about Isabell and Farlan and the dangers of his missions soon. But not tonight. Tonight, though he would never admit it, he needed comfort. Comfort she would try to give.

"Do you still have the ribbon?" She asked. He nodded, the tip of his nose brushing the corner of her mouth. "Keep it. Green is a token of safety, after all." The pad of her thumb rubbed into his scalp. The strands of his black hair were soft on her calloused skin.

Thalia cradled his head gently in her strong hands as names of the dead left his cracked lips, the whispers curling into the candle light. With closed eyes, she memorized the names of the children who had died in the service of a King who did not care to even bother to hear the death toll.

Once, the two predators circled and snarled and bared their fangs. Now, they were soaking in the timid warmth of each other's waning light.

* * *

Spring fell and winds from the west ushered heat and limitless skies. Fern was growing quickly, like a sapling of her namesake and required more mental stimulation than before. The little child began helping her mother in the bakery with simple tasks when she turned five and it pulled painfully on Thalia's heart to see her young niece work.

Levi visited when he could, lugging equipment that was broken and stories of his newly formed team falling from his lips. Though he never stayed longer than a day, she cherished those afternoons of listening to his soft voice brag about his team in his foul, peculiar way as she worked.

Every time he came, he offered the ribbon to her. And every time she refused, insisting it was for good luck and if had worked this long.

Though, her eyes lingered on the prized cloth before she shook her head in refusal.

The words of her father about seducing the captain for the family dimmed in her mind, fading from a shout to an echo. She stilled her rapidly beating heart and froze her fidgeting fingers when Levi stalked through her door.

Pops would sit and listen to Levi when he was in the shop, enjoying the sour captain's company. A light she had never seen set the old man's face aglow.

All was right. Not perfect. But right.

Revenge hung in the air like a cloud, but the anxiety that had plagued her soon faded as well. Her family was methodical. And methodical meant time.

So, time swirled by. Levi showed less and less, his letters becoming fewer in between as work engulfed his life.

The last letter she sent to him was a congratulations on surviving to the age of thirty.

Fern grew taller, her arms longer, and her legs stronger.

All of a sudden, the three year old was eight.

And then, Thalia was celebrating her twenty-fifth birthday with her whole family as she was called home, a rare letter from Levi tucked in her breast pocket as she descending into the underworld.

The wolves had been called to their den. The time to fight had descended upon them. All it had taken was a second breach in the wall and a Titan shifter to be arrested for the Commander of the Scouting Legion to be in their debt once again.

* * *

_AN: Nickel Creek holds a special place in my heart. I grew up listening to them. _

**_Savi: Ahh thank you so much! That review made me smile :)_**

**_Ffrvhsb: Thank you for reviewing! I hope I'm not pushing things along too quickly! I try to plan the plot out as much as I can._**

**_TECHNICALpanda: I hope you like this one! Please let me know if you think I'm moving things along too quickly. Relationships differ so much irl lol! _**

_Thank you for reading, please review! _


	11. Eleven

Part II

_Another Saying of Crows:_

_One for sorrow,_

_Two for mirth,_

_Three for a wedding,_

_Four for a birth,_

_Five for silver,_

_Six for gold,_

_Seven for a secret never to be told._

_Eight for a wish,_

_Nine for a kiss,_

_Ten for a bird you should never miss._

_Eleven for health,_

_Twelve for wealth,_

_Thirteen, beware the devil himself._

* * *

"Three."

* * *

She heard them before she saw them.

Two voices, a male and female's harmonizing sweetly, the melody intertwining together like twines to echo eerily off the old oak walls of the two story house under the city ground.

Thalia stared flatley at her appearance in the spotless round mirror mounted on the dark dining room walls. She brushed her freshly cut chin length hair behind her ear. A silver earring sparkled on her lobe in the wall mounted lantern room. She then smoothed her deep blue skirt down, pulling the matching lenin belt tighter around her waist and snapped the cuffs of her white, tucked in button down.

Graceful. A prideful tilt of the chin with wickedness caged behind slate gray eyes. The vision of a mobster's daughter wrapped delicately in a cotton skirt.

Today was the day the plan would be initiated. After five years of silence, they were now beating their wings.

The voices grew in crescendo as they neared the door.

Thalia's fingers brushed against the silver pleated chain that hung around her neck, a thin cross resting on her protruding collarbone. A prayer left her freshly scrubbed lips to the God her mother so devoutly followed.

The heavy oak door opened and the two singers finished with laughter, smiles brightening their faces and matching blue eyes as bright as the summer sky. Ida floated across the wooden floor to Thalia, who watched her siblings in the reflection of the mirror carefully. She handed her younger sister a pearly white mug, filled to the brim with steaming coffee.

"You look lovely," she said, brushing a strand of Thalia's hair from her cheek.

Thalia took the mug gratefully, not realizing how badly she needed a caffeine fix to still her trembling hands. She regarded Ida in the mirror, a little twitch of her lips cracking her solid exterior. "You're the beautiful one of the family." Ida smiled gracefully.

It was true. The eldest Wolfstien stood proudly beside Thalia, a head shorter than the lanky woman. Her deep green skirt hugged her full hips delicately in stark contrast to the tight cinch of Thalia's. Her raven black hair hung down her back in careful ringlets and her eyes were a hopeful sky blue against the stone gray of Thalia's.

The Persephony of the Underworld, the citizens of the Underground would say.

And of course, the prince of the Underground landed on Kaine's raven head, who came to stand beside Thalia's other shoulder.

"Our guests should be arriving shortly," he said in his low, smooth tone. His equally electric eyes were startling against his pale skin and mop of thick, black hair. With her free hand, Thalia adjusted his suit collar, smoothing it against his chest. She took a timid sip of her drink.

Five years. Five years since she had laid eyes on the captain. Five years since brushing her hand against his. Five years of carefully stopping the skip her heart would take at the sight of his letters and smothering her bones with practicality.

She couldn't stop the wonder of how much had he changed. How much had she changed?

Then, sooner than she had time to prepare (though she had days to prepare) Vincent's voice floated down the hall and into the dining room. One replied, mixing in the air and setting Thalia's heart racing. She pulled the reins of realism and halted it.

The siblings turned, Kaine's hand finding its spot on Thalia's shoulder comfortingly. For once, she didn't mind the heartfelt gesture as three figures strode into the flickering candle light of the dining room.

The long table separated the two of them. Levi stood beside Erwin, a shadow in the commander's presence. The two men were dressed in their uniforms, their backs straight and eyes alert. But only Erwin was listening to Vincent's polite chatter.

Levi's eyes instantly found Thalia standing proudly between her youngest and eldest sibling. Her heart took a leap but she caught it before it could land its shaking thump, squeezing the fingers of self control around the muscle until all that remained was a numbing sensation spreading through her limbs.

His eyes had grown colder.

Had hers?

Vincent spread his hand at the table. "Please take a seat. The other two will be here shortly." He shot his siblings a look and they instantly obeyed his command, moving to their seats.

Thalia settled in her respective chair between Vincent and Kaine, placing her barely touched coffee before her and folding her fingers in her lap. Levi was across from her with Erwin at his right. He gave her a fleeting glance that spoke volumes: betrayal.

She couldn't stop the shriveling of her heart and the hardening of her chest.

But Thalia couldn't brood for long, for the men of the day glided into the room with their black silk suits shining like armor.

The Don, sturdy as an oak and as clever as a crow sat at the head of the long table. His fingers glittered in the lamplight with priceless rings as he laced them. But the most beautiful, a turquoise stone set in silver, shimmered twice on his ring finger.

Her father, cruel and wicked and dark haired and dark eyed sat at his right. A shadow in the Don's false light. A thick inked line on his ring finger showed proudly as he curled his fingers on the smooth wood.

The two Scout officers sat taller. Erwin smiled politely, but Thalia saw the cunning glint of his eyes in the lantern light. "It's good to see that you are well, Roman," he addressed the Don.

Thalia's grandfather inclined his neatly combed, snowy white head. Not a single thread or hair out of place. "Likewise goes to you. And Levi," he settled his calculating eyes on the stiff captain, "I'm glad to see that military life has treated you well."

Levi remained a blank slate. "Thank you, sir." Even his words and the slight not of his head were mechanical.

Empty. Careful. Uncertain. Thalia saw the turmoil behind the tautness of his mouth. Turmoil her family caused.

But her family had a reason for that turmoil.

Right? Right.

The Don pulled out a cigar fat with tobacco and silver matchbox from his breast pocket. He struck a match and lit the cigar between his lips. The room waited with bated breath as he let a wisp of smoke curl from his thin lips.

"I have a favor to ask of you, Erwin," he sighed. The tip of the cigar glowed a deadly orange.

Erwin rose a thick brow. He studied the Don carefully. "And what might that be?" But Thalia knew he had a feeling of what her grandfather was going to ask. He was a clever man, and they never went without hunches.

Thalia and her siblings remained respectfully silent. Practically, they weren't required to be present, but it was a formality for the entirety of the family to be present during official meetings. However, there were several other men who weren't in their seats that were vital to the family's success underground. It made the hairs on Thalia's neck rise. The absence of those men gave away the fact that the Don was certain he would get whatever he was seeking.

The Don took another drag. "I need to borrow four sets of your ODM gear," he said around the smoke. "And I need location, a pair of Scout Officer fatigues, and four valid passports that don't have an Underground stamp."

The Wolfstein siblings stiffened. The game was about to be settled. And the Don would be crowned the victor of this gamble.

"Why should we do as you say?" Levi asked before Erwin could answer.

Lorenzo's chair creaked as he sat forward. "Because," he said slowly, "you owe us two debts."

Levi curled his lips in a frown, a crease forming between his thin brows as he stared the Don down. But the Don was looking at Erwin. A knowing look passed between the two leaders. Victory lit the older man's bright blue eyes.

The Don took a puff of the nicotine. "A debt for the street boy," he waved his cigar at Levi and Thalia almost flinched, "and a debt for keeping the Titan boy from the hangman's noose."

"Done." Erwin said without batting an eye.

Levi shot him a look of carefully masked disbelief. As though feeling his heavy stare, Erwin slid him a warning glance. His eyes narrowed.

Thalia watched the two carefully.

Erwin turned to the head of the Wolfstien family. "What information do you need? I can't promise I'll have it,"

"Nile Dok." The Don said. Dread filled Thalia's stomach. "Where might his family live?"

Levi's jaw clicked and Thalia dug at the skin under her fingers in her lap, keeping her face plane.

The question took Erwin off guard. His eyes widened a fraction - the only loss of his carefully assembled composure. His fingers tapped on the darkly polished table for a moment. The gears behind his eyes turned, weighing the cost of denying the Don his request. Of turning away from a debt requiring to be paid in full and risking the wrath of the family.

Erwin pursed his lips and ignored the deathly glare Levi leveled him with. He nodded to the two men, as if praying for forgiveness for his sins. "223 South Street in the capitol. The house has a red front door."

Thalia's heart ached for Erwin but she stifled the trickle of sympathy. This was family business and there was no room for emotions such as that.

Her grandfather leaned back in his chair, taking a victorious drag of his cigar. Her father pulled his own out, a false smile cutting his mouth and gray eyes - _her _eyes - glittering like obsidian in the warm glow of the lanterns. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Commander Smith."

Kaine's hand found hers under the table. She had no idea she was shaking so badly until his fingers wrapped around hers and they stilled. She stared into her cold coffee, feeling the heavy burden of Levi's eyes as they burned into her scalp.

She squeezed Kaine's fingers and he squeezed back.

Lord have mercy on their souls.

* * *

The night was cool against Thalia's arms despite the long lenin sleeves. It was a chilly October and smoke and crisp night air filled her lungs. She ascended from the Underground on quick feet, flashing the guards on her family's payroll a frown in warning to not stop her as she passed by.

The capitol city glittered like stars under the inky midnight sky. Stars of stolen lives as thousands suffered under the polished shoes of the privileged.

She pushed aside the simmering bitterness in her stomach as she wound her way through the streets where the Scouts were stationed. How she was going to get to Levi's room she was unsure, but she had to see him before they departed in the morning. She refused to let him leave the forsaken city until she saw him properly.

To explain her family to the extent she could. To explain her. She braced herself for whatever rage he would push on her. She took a breath, trying to soften her heart to understand his anger that would surely follow her poor words.

Thalia found him sitting on the cobblestone steps of the two story house the Scouts were stationed at, gazing at the endless sky. She slowed her steps as she neared. His cravat was gone and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. A cup of tea dangled from his long fingertips.

He lowered his head as she stopped in front of him, not surprised to see her. Blank. His face was perfectly blank of any emotion, any hint of anger.

She wanted him to be angry. Required it.

"Can we talk somewhere private?" she asked.

He tilted his head. "Are you going to tell the truth?" he returned.

"What kind of question is that?"

He rolled his eyes to the sky once again, studying the starless dark. "You seem fond of not telling the truth, _Wolfstien,_"

A pang shot through her chest. He was right but hearing it fall from his lips hurt more than she realized. "I promise." And she meant it.

Thalia followed him in the house. It was plain, stripped bare of any artifacts that would truly make it a home. Few soldiers milled about and the ones who did avoided them like they were death incarnate. Whether it was because of Levi or Thalia, the woman was unsure. She was hardly in the mood to appear pleasant.

Up a flight of wooden stairs that creaked under Thalia's heeled boots and through a peeling door, she was then in Levi's bare quarters.

It consisted of a twin bed with plane linen sheets pressed against the left wall, a single desk with an oil lamp, and a decent sized window with drab curtains that opened to the silent streets below.

Levi struck a match against the sole of his boot and lit the lamp. The rising glow illuminated the room in shadow, encasing him in darkness. Thalia stood with her back pressed against the closed door, unsure if she should speak. Silence stretched between them.

Finally, Levi broke the suffocating quiet. With his back to her, he said, "If one lie leaves your mouth, I'm walking out that door."

She swallowed harshly. It was fair enough. "What do you wish to know?"

He muttered under his breath and turned his body halfway to her. The shadows plunged his face into darkness. "Everything from the past six years."

So, she spoke with a pain she did not know was possible pulling at her heart in every direction. And now, they were as estranged as they were when he first set foot into Pops' shop.

She pushed her aching heart to the depths of her chest, silencing it.

Thalia's hands shook behind her back and she pressed them into the cool door as she retold all she could. She told him of Pops' hands being destroyed. She spoke of the boy who begged for his life and how she slit his throat without a second thought. She recalled her initial desire to know why he was so familiar (not without a flush reaching her neck) and how she discovered he was once associated with the family.

The coupe, however, was a secret she would die holding to her chest. Even if he abandoned her and cursed the ground she walked on, she would not speak of her family's affairs.

Her family was her life. And she would die protecting them.

Levi listened with his head bowed and the backs of his thighs leaning against his desk. As she finished her explanation of the past six years, she wished he would at least change his expression. To twist his face sourly. But it had remained the same during her spill. Blank.

"So why does your grandfather want the ODM gear and location of the MP commander's family?" he asked softly.

"I don't know," she said truthfully. The MP was either going to die or become an associate for the cause, but Thalia did not know which. "I wanted to tell you, Levi. But I couldn't, my hands were tied." she took a step towards him, abandoning the safety of the door. She should stop talking, but the words tumbled from her lips with no context. She just needed to speak. "Father insisted I stay quiet. I couldn't disobey." She took a second step. Her fingers craved to feel his. To make him understand her situation without having to _tell_ him.

"Why?"

It was a simple question. A relatively simple answer would not suffice. _Because that's how my family is, _would never convince him_. _But to answer truthfully meant opening up a box of hurt she had so dutifully stored away in the shelves of her mind. Her breath burned in her lungs and she blinked rapidly.

He looked up. Strands of raven hair fell in his eyes, giving him the appearance of one of Fern's dolls - a raggedy man. "Why couldn't you tell me you were a mafia's daughter?"

Her arms hung heavily by her sides. "Father wanted our friendship to be stable and not be influenced by the knowledge of my family. He knew you wouldn't be pleased," she said flatly. Her fingers curled into her skirt. It _was_ the truth.

His face twisted, the sharp planes of his face contorting harshly. _There it was._ "Damn right I'm _not pleased, _and I said to not lie,"

"I'm not lying." Her throat swelled around the words. She deserved the anger, the hurt that sand through her blood. Her family had betrayed him by turning him over to the corps.

"Bullshit."

Her words stung as she forced them out, "I promise I'm telling you all I can. Do you trust me?" she asked, taking another tentative step. He curled his shoulders inward like a child and bowed his head once more. She couldn't tell him why her father wanted the two of them together, the words died on her tongue as soon as they touched it. To speak of his request all those years ago meant opening the doors to her family's lust for revenge. Dusting off that box and cracking open the lid would take more strength than she could offer.

Someday. But not today.

His shoulders rose and fell with his sigh, the anger rolling off them like a black fog. "I do trust you. But I need you to be honest with me if I'm going to propose to you,"

Thalia took a step back, reeling. Her heart froze and her nerves caught fire. "What?" No. He couldn't ask that of her. They had toed the line of romantic intents at times, but one of them would always pull away before the embrace lasted too long, if the touches became too frequent, if the kind words grew too sweet.

He tilted his head to the lamp. His features sharpened wickedly in the sole flame as he watched it dance on its wick. "Your family is plotting, so of course Erwin is as well. I think he's been plotting for years. I always found it odd that he fought tooth and nail to keep us near your town when he found out I was seeing you." He leveled his gaze to her slightly trembling form. "Our union would benefit the Scouts and your family. Erwin was the one who suggested it." Their eyes held each others for an agonizing second.

She stilled her trembling hands by clutching a fistful of lenin skirt. "It would assure no betrayal on either side. The Scouts and my family would be bound to work together for the rest of our lives." she said weakly. She knew he spoke the truth. But did she have to conform to it? Even if they married, her family would find some way to make the Scouts would suffer should the military even consider double crossing them.

There had to be a way from him offering his hand. To keep herself from being caged in matrimony that wasn't desired. "It would be a loveless marriage." she tried weakly. "This has nothing to do with fighting Titans. This has nothing to do with humanity,"

He blinked slowly and her heart fell. "I know. But whatever Erwin and your Father are plotting are politics, and _they _are humanity. Erwin wouldn't have asked it of me if it weren't for the benefit for our survival." He was as accurate as Thalia's weapons.

Her bones knew what must be done. Because this wasn't about her, it never had been. The revenge her family clawed after wasn't for _her _peace of mind. She would do anything, even give up her life, if it meant Vincent laughed again. If her father smiled one more time. If her grandfather didn't brush Ida off because she was born with the striking resemblance of his daughter - her mother.

She would do all she could to sharpen the the killing blow to the monarchy if it meant her family could once again live. Even if her freedom had to die with it.

"Marry me?" he asked softly, the words dancing in shadow.

It had never been her choice in the beginning. "Yes." She sealed another win for her father. Another gamble that played perfectly into his patient hands.

The world would still spin. The stars still shine. Her hands would still be steady and her mind sharp. She would survive. Because survival is all she could ever do in this blood soaked, tyrannical run world called home.

The ever flowing curiosites would be quenched at the cost of her wings being clipped short. She held onto the thin string of satisfaction that at least now she would have the ability to learn about Farlan and Isabel and why he froze when Ida spoke gently to him. After six years she would finally have the chance to speak to him about everything.

"Will a silver ring suffice?" Levi suddenly asked, breaking the long stretch of silence.

Thalia was so surprised by the trivial question that she almost laughed. With a startled grin pulling at her mouth and quirking her brows, she said, "I'm happy for whatever you give me,"

He hummed. "I'll inform Erwin, then,"

The heaviness pushed onto her chest once again. "And I'll tell my father." He would be pleased, at least. She would have some good news to share, some form of victory to parade around.

Levi tilted his head toward the window behind him. "Want me to walk you home?"

She squinted, taking in his tensed shoulders and thinned lips. "You're upset at me -"

"- Damn right I am," he muttered.

She took a breath, steadying her bubble of frustration as she finished, "So I'll walk myself. I'll be okay, I made it here just fine." He was trying to be patient with her. But she had broken his trust, trust that had been fragile to begin with. Never could one be too cautious in their line of work and that caution had finally rubbed their friendship raw.

She had never told him the full truth. He still tried to control her, despite her foul comments and sharp looks.

As she carefully descended the stairs to the Underground, Thalia prayed to the God her mother followed that their marriage wouldn't kill them.

* * *

_AN: And the plot thickens. Thank you to all the lovely people who reviewed, it seriously gave me a writing push!_

_**Jersinia: **__Thank you for reading!_

_**TECHNICALpanda: **__Yes, I'm trying to push a solid friendship between the two and play with that dynamic on how it'll be challenged in the next half of the story. Thank you for giving me your feedback!_

_**ValerianOrchid: **__Thank you, that means so much :) Please feel free to critique me!_

_**Guest, Savi: **__Thank you, I'm trying to find a healthy balance. His damage isn't ever shown in canon, but they're all pretty messed up tbh_

_**Guest, Sunnysideup: **__Thank you for reviewing :)_

_**Guest, : **__You're too kind, thank you! Please critique me if you feel like things are getting too Mary Sue-ish_

_**Guest**__, __**MonstaXmas**__: Ahhh thank you so much :))_

_**Guest, :**_ _Yes, he will! I'm already planning on how I want Thalia to view him and the rest of the Scouts, but her ideas of them is still the same._

_**Guest, charlie-hj: **__Thank you! I love adding details, I'm still going back as is and adding more and more for the final version of this. Thalia's personality is complicated, it's been fun flushing her character out. Fern will still be in this story, no worries :)_

_Thank you all again! Please critique and review!_


	12. Twelve

_Youth by Daughter_

* * *

"No Matter, We are Together."

* * *

"An October wedding," Ida hummed as she pulled Thalia's hair with a comb. "Such a beautiful season. Will you two be able to come to the house for Thanks Day in November? I'm planning on having everyone over. It's been a few years since I've hosted."

Thalia shrugged her thin shoulders, staring blankly into the crackling fire instead of her needlework. "I guess it's now up to Levi. He has an expedition soon, he may be out working." Her fingers tightened around her stitching.

A week until the wedding. It had already been one week since Levi had proposed and the Don was quick to encourage the ceremony. Military engagements were traditionally quick and without the usual parties and ceremonies. Since the Scouts were planning to leave in November before the first frost, they had to push it sooner than desired by the bride and groom.

The thought of Levi going back out into Titan territory made her fingers tighten even more.

"That would be a shame for him not to come," Kaine said from his curled position in the red armchair beside Thalia's. "I enjoy the kid's presence, even if all he does is pucker like he's eaten a lemon,"

Thalia pulled the needle through the handkerchief absently. "He's older than you, Kaine," she said. Ida gently pulled the comb through Thalia's knotted short, thin hair.

Kaine hummed, giving away that he wasn't paying attention as he flipped a page of his novel. "How old is he? Twenty-four?"

"Try thirty,"

A noise of disbelief escaped his throat and his bright eyes widened. "But he looks so young. Maybe it's his height," he trailed off.

"Isn't a five year gap a bit much, Lia?" Ida asked, concern lacing her words.

Thalia pulled another stitch through. It was a gift for Fern, a simple cloth handkerchief with her initials embroidered on the edge and a simplistic fern on the opposite corner. "Father and The Don were beyond pleased with the announcement. This isn't exactly a marriage born of romantic feelings,"

The room grew quiet, filled only by the snapping and popping of the fire consuming the logs.

Love. That was a belief that was a gaping bullet wound in the Wolfstien heart. Ever since their mother passed, all thoughts of romantic gestures seemed to die with her, decaying like her body. It wasn't that Thalia and her siblings didn't believe in love, they loved each other fiercely. But the thought of putting themselves on that thin line for another only to have them ripped away was tiresome.

Thalia pulled the needle through steadily and Ida kept brushing despite her hair no longer being tangled. The whisper of Kaine's fingers turning the page of his novel joined the silent song of contentment in the room. Slowly, the tension slid from Thalia's shoulders.

No, she did not love Levi the way a wife loves her husband. But she did care for him as a close companion, there was absolutely no denying that, and she knew he felt the same. That would have to satisfy them.

The door to the parlor opened and Vincent strode through, a leatherbound book tucked under his arm. Ida's fingers paused in Thalia's hair and Thalia glanced away from her stitching. Vincent settled on the sette across from her chair, the fire blazing by their shoulders.

His gray eyes matched her own as they flickered from her balled up hands to her curious face. Eyes of their father.

As if snapping from a revere, he pulled the book from under his arm. The cover was cracked from use with gold cursive lettering on the front. He held it in both of his hands, albows braced on his knees as he read and re-read the words.

The siblings were on edge as a slow breath whispered from his parted lips. "This is one of Mom's books," he began, his brow creased, "and she told me to give it to you before you married." He held it out towards Thalia, knuckles white around the material.

Thalia didn't move. She remained frozen and her vision tunneled on the book. One of her mother's items. As precious as the ribbon she gifted Levi. Her heart began to pound and her fingers shook under the soft handkerchief.

Tentatively, she extended her hand and closed the gap. The book was cool under her fingers, the leather spider webbing from the use. She pulled it onto her lap, her eyes straining in the firelight to read the reflective golden lettering.

She sucked in her breath and her eyes widened as the words registered. From her shoulder, Ida softly exclaimed, "It's one of her Bible's,"

Kaine uncurled his long legs from the armchair and sat up, his own book long forgotten. "I thought all of them had been burned in the fire," he said, his smooth voice a whisper.

Vincent shook his head. "She had kept a few hidden in her room here. Before the fire, she gave ours to me for safekeeping,"

Kaine tilted his head. "Ours?"

Vincent kept his eyes on the Bible in Thalia's shaking hands. "There's one for each of us, intended as a gift when we get married. Ida, I want to give you yours now. And Kaine's too. I don't think she would have minded,"

Thalia brushed her fingers against the lettering. It was smooth and cool in contrast to the rough cover. Like her mother in comparison to her father. "Thank you, Vince," she looked up. "I'll keep it safely hidden."

If one were to be found by the military, Thalia would be arrested, if not burned at the stake. Though the religions of the past had mostly been forgotten, the ones that did remember no longer tolerated them. The occult leaders of the Walls ensured that any mention of a form of any other deity would be silenced. The government claimed it was banned literature from a time before the Walls - a time they need not recall.

"Lia," Vincent said, his deep voice thick. "No matter what happens, you're still our sister."

Thalia's heart clenched and her chest tightened at the crack of his solid exterior. Carefully, she outstretched a free hand between them. He grasped it with both of his, his head bowed. "And you're still my brother," she said, her throat closing. "You are all still my family, forever and always."

Ida's hands rested firmly on Thalia's shoulders and squeezed. Kaine lowered his bright eyes, glassy with emotion.

Together. They would always stand by one another, no man or woman would ever rip them apart. They had ran from death's call countless times, schemed together, and plotted alongside one another. Nothing had pulled them apart, and nothing will. Not even time.

In that moment , with her mother's Bible resting heavily on her lap and the fire cracking, Thalia swore that she would do all she could in her power to keep her family safe. No price was too high for the freedom of her family.

* * *

Curled under the sheets that night, Thalia gingerly leafed through the crinkled pages of the Bible.

Certain verses were underlined neatly and her mother's tight cursive filled the margins of some of the pages. Words of advice Thalia would never hear spoken. Words of knowledge and wisdom far beyond her mother's short, yet full life.

Thalia brushed her fingers across the ink tenderly.

The soft click of her door opening had her swiftly stuffing the book under the sheets. She turned to find Fern flying to her bed and jumping in, quickly shimmying her small body under the quilts to escape the chilled air.

Thalia brushed Fern's soft dark hair. It was the same shade of black as Ida's. Deep and endless, like the night sky that was void of stars.

"You're getting married, aren't you?" Fern asked into the pillow. Her shoulders curled up to her ears.

Thalia ran her fingers through a tangle, gently undoing it. "Yes, to Levi. Aren't you excited?"

Fern pushed her face further into the pillow and shrugged her thin shoulders. "Mom says you won't be able to visit much,"

A knot formed in Thalia's throat. "I'll have a new duty as a captain's wife." She and Levi had shared a few short words via letters after he returned to the surface. A new weight was to be added to the load on her shoulders when they say _I do_, but her back was strong enough to carry it.

Fern's back rose and fell slowly in a sigh. "I don't want you to go," she said, her voice shaky.

Thalia removed her hand from her niece's hair and draped her arm around Fern's torso, enveloping her in a blanket hug. "I'm always going to be here for you," she said, her chest tightening as Fern gave a muffled sniff. "I'll just be a call away. I promise I won't be far."

Fern said nothing as she nodded her head, refusing to meet Thalia's face.

Thalia laid there, hugging Fern close as she let the girl sniff and wipe her own tears away. Her family stole Levi's freedom. And so the Scouts took hers away in retaliation.

A seed of resentment buried itself in the soil of her heart as Thalia fell asleep with Fern in her arms.


	13. Thirteen

_Married Life from Up by Cover Kid_

* * *

"White."

* * *

The dress was a simplistic white. The smooth satin hung straight down her body, cinched at the waist to highlight her lack of a figure and sleeves trailed to her wrists. The dress pooled around her feet and trailed behind her, hiding her bare toes as they buried themselves in the dying grass.

A bouquet of several sunflowers were clutched in her steeled hands. No viel hid her face and her hair was simply curl pinned off her forehead.

The afternoon sun shone warmly on her back through the golden and red leaves. A chilled wind rushed through, rustling the leaves on the brown grass up in a twirl around her skirts, stirring the delicate material around her ankles. She watched the birds perch on the gabled roof of the two story cottage that had once housed her whole family. It had been void of life for years after being damaged in the fire, but has since then been rebuilt to house family associates. Today, it was the backdrop for the wedding both parties had been dreading.

Thalia mostly ignored the officary, dressed in his black robe and white collar circling his neck like a noose. He droned on how the goddesses would watch over them, bless their sanctified marriage, and bring countless blessings. Things she knew would not befall their union.

The silver ring on her finger was frigid against her skin.

And then, he announced them man and wife. Thalia turned to Levi with challenge in her gaze. He had been dreading this part and tried insisting they cut it out, but Thalia won that verbal argument by reminding him that it would be the only act of consummation of the marriage.

He met her stare with his own challenge and jutted his chin up a fraction. She tilted her head down and he met her halfway, pressing a firm kiss to her lips. He took it a step further by brushing his fingers against her jaw, officially putting her earlier teasing to rest.

The Scouts erupted in what Thalia could only describe as juvenile cheer. Her family, however, clapped somberly as the couple faced the crowd, their fingers intertwined. Thalia met the flat gazes of her people with her own. Fern smiled tightly beside Ida's green skirt, who's smile was weak. Her brothers nodded as the clapping died down and her father and grandfather gave their own, twisted versions of pleased smiles.

"May I now pronounce," the officiary boomed over the fading cheers, placing his hands on either of their shoulders, "Mister and Misses Wolfstien."

* * *

"It makes sense that you took their last name, I don't know why I was so surprised by it," a woman with round glasses said as she approached the couple mingling with the guests in the refurbished living room. A boy no older than fifteen trailed behind her, both in their dress uniform.

Levi snorted. "I don't have a last name she can take on, Hange,"

Thalia cut him a glance. He had never mentioned a surname and though it never bothered her, she didn't know he had none to begin with. Orphaned, then, most likely at a young age.

Even after knowing him for six years, she hardly knew the planes of his mind.

Hange gave a smile that was a little too wide for her face. "I'm well aware of that. But never mind that, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Misses Wolfstien," she extended a hand to Thalia.

Thalia took it, a polite smile softened her features. "The pleasure is all mine. Are you an officer?" She took notice of the additional stripe on her right arm under the wings of the military patch.

Hange's grip tightened and her smile somehow widened. "Squad leader, actually, and a woman of science such as yourself,"

Thalia flexed her numbing fingers under Hange's vice like grip. "A mechanic, really. Biology wasn't ever my forte,"

"Ah, but mechanical work is saturated in science. Physics, math, it all requires a mind that thirsts for knowledge." Finally, she let go of Thalia's throbbing hand, who pulled it back at her side, tucking it in the bundle of her skirts. With the way the lamplight and setting sun glinted off Hange's glasses, it gave her an eery front.

Levi swept his hand in front of him, palm facing up towards the boy. "And this is Eren,"

Thalia's attention snapped to the brown haired boy. He would have been her exact height if he pulled his shoulders back. He gave her a nervous smile, rubbing the back of his head.

"A pleasure to meet you, ma'am," he said.

The Titan boy. The one who got caught by the military and played right into her father's hands. "I'm happy you came," she said after a beat. "I'm sure it was a nice break compared to the military academy." Fifteen years old and an instrument in the destruction of life as they knew it. A mere child and marching onto the battlefield only to die for his king and country that didn't give a damn about his life.

Stupid. They were all foolish.

"Thank you, ma'am," Eren said. "Your house is beautiful as well,"

Without realizing it, her face fell. "Thank you. It is a nice cottage." She had many fond memories running down the sturdy stairs and through the kitchen to the sheep they once herded outside. She could still hear her mother calling her siblings inside after a day of playing in the woods, all rosy cheeked with dirty under their nails and grass in their hair and smiles as bright as the sun.

Kaine's robust laughter pulled her from her gray memories. She pulled her charming smile on and nodded her head respectfully. "Thank you very much for coming,"

Hange spoke to Levi for a moment and Eren drifted away in the crowd, his eyes searching the full room. They lit up when he found what he was searching for and he pushed his way through the sea of bodies. Thalia watched silently as he found Levi's private squad and her lips pursed when she saw Kaine and Petra speaking with wide smiles on their faces.

"You're pale. Don't pass out on me," Levi said softly by her ear.

She pulled her eyes away before he could track where she was looking. "I won't. It's just been a long day." And the memories of her home were beginning to push all celebratory thoughts from her mind.

He huffed in agreement. "Too many damn officers to speak to."

Thalia hummed. They had spoken to far too many people to count, all of their names and faces were a blur in her mind. Most of them were either military officials or officers in the Crow Syndicate. Thalia couldn't remember the last time when the whole organization had joined together under the same roof. Despite the chest squeezing occasion, she was content with everyone celebrating together.

They continued to speak politely to their guests, Thalia taking the reigns for the Crow officials and Levi taking the lead for the military. Together they combated the tiring expedition of entertaining unwanted guests for an unwanted occasion.

And then, the clock struck eight, chiming with bright urgency. The guests ushered the weary couple out into the cool night and into a simple carriage, where it would take them to the Scouts recently reestablished HQ.

She couldn't even stay in her childhood home for a night, Thalia simmered silently beside Levi. The ride was silent, but not awkward. Neither had the energy to talk and Thalia didn't feel like trying. Silence was something they shared more than words.

Through the woods, up a rocky slope, and then they arrived. The abandoned castle the Scouts had once been stationed at five years ago was now occupied again after years of being baron.

Thalia's things had already been delivered to the room they would share, and as she climbed the stairs with her legs burning, she realized with a jolt she would no longer be able to soak her muscles after a hard day.

One test after another.

Levi paused when they reached his door, his hand wrapped around the knob and his brow quirked. "Want me to carry you across the threshold?" He asked dryly.

Thalia nudged his shoulder. "Just open the door, I'm ready for bed."

He shrugged and swung the door open, a high squeal ringing from the hinges. He muttered about the _damn green horns not doing anything right_ as she pushed by in a swirl of skirt. The room was just as bare as she expected it to be. A regular sized bed was flush against the left wall, a window with a large desk under it piled high with precariously stacked papers lay to the right. Immediately in front of her was a modest wardrobe and her chest beside it.

It wasn't much. In fact, it was the bare minimum. But it was now home, and she would settle her roots and make do with what she was given.

Levi softly shut the door behind them, making for the nightstand beside the bed where a candle resided. As he struck the match, Thalia knelt by her chest and carefully pulled the latches free to find her sleep clothes.

"Levi," she said, digging around in her chest. She carefully chose a set of soft cotton pants and shirt. "Can you unbutton the back of my dress? I can't reach,"

He grunted and stood behind her. Steadily, his fingers undid the expensive buttons that held her dress front up. "This is why dresses are overrated. You can't even dress yourself like a grown adult,"

She huffed a strand of hair from her eyes. "You speak so sweetly on our wedding night." He grunted again. His fingers brushed her skin briefly as he finished releasing the buttons and she pressed her arms to her abdomen to keep the front up. The dress practically swallowed her malnourished frame. Her shoulders curved in sharply and as she did so, her vertebrae poked sicknely through her dress slip.

She wished he would turn away.

Finally, the last button gave way. "I'll be at my desk, so tell me when you're done changing." He moved away from her softly on socked feet, his boots already off. He sat curled at his desk and lit the glass lamp that was definitely too close to the brittle paper and began to read.

And now for the difficult part.

Thalia shimmied out of the dress and slid out of her flats, folding the soft material carefully as she stood in her underslip and braces. It was a shame the dress couldn't have been worn on a giddy bride, blushing with embarrassed excitement as her husband removed the flowing material from her shoulders for the night.

Carefully tucking the dress over the forbidden Bible deep in her clothing chest, she closed the lid and stood, clutching her sleepwear to her chest. She settled on the edge of the bed and quickly unbuckled the many leather straps keeping her braces tight.

"Can I turn around yet?" Levi asked, impatient.

Thalias's fingers paused. "Not yet, I'm unstrapping my braces. Unless you're just _dying_ to see my underdress," she teased dryly. She honestly didn't care if he saw her in her underslip, the material was thick enough that it didn't reveal anything private.

Levi grunted. "No offense, but I'm ready to get changed and you're taking too damn long."

Thalia quirked her brow as he stood and turned to face her. They both stared at each other, two pairs of marble gray eyes seized the other up. Thalia's foot bounced and her fingers tapped on her thigh under the weight of his roaming gaze.

His face shifted peculiarly as he studied her disheveled state. His eyes widened and his mouth relaxed, the tension lines eased a fraction.

Contentment.

The tightness in Thalia's chest eased a breath. "Like what you see?" she tilted her head to the left, a coy smile tugging at her lips. She knew very well how shitty she appeared. With an underdress, frizzy hair, half removed braces, and bags to high Heavens, she was hardly the picture of bridely beauty.

Levi scoffed and rolled his eyes. He muttered something under his breath while moving to the wardrobe. "Just get changed."

Her smile fell. Her fingers found their way to the silver ring on her finger and twisted the band. Her eyes found Levi's matching one, flashing in the low light as he removed his suit jacket and carefully hung it on a hook.

Married. She was married to her friend now. They were each others but still their own. She would always fight for that. And though she knew Levi would never force her to do anything she did not want, she also knew how possessive he could be during the days his grief gripped him so tightly that he gripped onto her.

That would be an obstacle to overcome, to say the least. Thalia Wolfstien was not a woman to be possessed by any person.

Pushing the tumbling thoughts aside, she finished unstrapping her braces. She stood by gripping the edge of the bed and turned away to unfasten the belt. She laid the braces to the side, the metal clinking softly, and slid her pants on. Still facing the wall and without giving herself time to second guess her actions, she pulled the dress over her head. The cold October air bit into her exposed skin and she pulled on her long sleeved shirt quickly.

She prayed Levi hadn't seen her back. She knew he would be beyond upset with the marks of growth that marred her lower spine, claiming she was a lying piece of shit despite the truth.

When she turned around to put her things away, he was adjusting the lamp, pushing the flame down, wearing a cotton shirt and pants like her.

And then, the lamp was off, their things were neatly tucked away, and the two were on their backs, side by side under the sheets. Nothing but the gentle huffs of their breath filled the room. The castle was silent from the absence of the soldiers.

"I guess I'll be going into the shop in the morning," Thalia said quietly. "Since town is only an hour away,"

He hummed. "Remember that you have to be back before sundown,"

Thalia grunted, rolling over on her side to face him. "I won't be able to get hardly anything done,"

"I didn't make the rules,"

"They're still stupid,"

He turned his head to her. In the moonlight, she could just make out the ridges of his sharp cheekbones. They were sunken now, like a skeleton. "It's a formality for the wife of an officer to obey the same rules that apply to them,"

"You were always out past dark," she argued softly. She lost count the times he stayed all night in the shop with her.

But that was before she shattered his delicate trust. He didn't visit her after Erwin had made the deal with the Don. Didn't even send a letter until he had to explain to her the new rules she was now expected to follow.

The covers expanded over his chest as he took a slow breath. "Erwin made an exception then. He can't anymore,"

Because now Erwin has what he wanted. It lay between them, unspoken but painfully known. And now, Thalia must obey the rules Levi never had to follow.

She pulled the covers over her shoulder, her fist curling into the scratchy material. She was caged and her wings beat painfully against the heavy bars. "I know. Be back before sundown, but up before sunrise," she listed in a mocking tone. She let out a sigh to keep the angry words that threatened to spill over. They had already fought about the expectations she would have to live up to, and while Thalia loved a good fight, she didn't want to make things between them any more tense than they already were.

An oddly unproblematic response from a problematic woman.

Hesitantly, Thalia stretched her hand out and placed it on his cheek bone. Her ring matched the silver moon shining from the window behind him and his skin was chilled from the autumn air. "We're in this together now," she whispered. "But I'm not going to be an easy wife. I wasn't raised to be submissive."

He hummed as she stroked his skin, his face twitching between tense and relaxed. "I'm well aware of what a hardass you can be,"

Her thumb stroked just under his eye, right where the crows feet pressed into the skin. "Have you ever pursued anyone?" She didn't know where the question came from, it just fell from her mouth.

The skin tightened under her touch. "No,"

"I know you're lying," she said.

"It doesn't matter if I pursued anyone else. I'm married to you, Lia. You're my wife." He caught her hand in his and raised it just over his face so that the ring caught the silver light perfectly. His shined in unison by her fingers. "And as your husband, I will always be loyal to you. Do you trust me?" His finger traced the band of her ring.

Thalia's breath shallowed. Of course he would reverse her words on her, he was too clever not to. "I do," she said, meaning it. However, his words only made the mystery of him swirl even tighter around his shadow cloaked form.

The way he looked at Ida. Farlan and Isabel. And now an unknown woman. Six years of friendship and yet they hardly knew a thing about each other, always holding one another by the fingertips and never with a closed hand.

At least she wouldn't be completely bored out of her mind in this drabby castle.

Once again she moved without letting her brain to fully catch her. She shifted closer and pressing a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. "And I promise I'm loyal to you," she said carefully into his skin. Not to the Scouts (she would never tell him that), not to the military, not to her king. But to her family, to her people dying in the Underground City. And Levi was now both.

He let go of her hand and she curled it under her chin. She froze her beating heart as he tilted his head a fraction to her, his nose pressing against hers. His eyelids fluttered. "I won't be an affectionate husband." His lips brushed her cheek as he spoke.

"I know." It was something she was going to be all right with. It wasn't a marriage of love and she held no expectations for him.

They stayed silent for a long moment. The tune they had been swinging to for six years had now changed tempos and Thalia was unsure of how to move her feet. Now, they stumbled along to different beats and she hoped they wouldn't fall in a heap.

Levi rolled over to face the window and Thalia turned to the wall. A cold space lingered between them. A space where trust had once been.

For the first time in years, Thalia drifted into a dreamless sleep without Fern warming her back.

* * *

_AN: Please review/critique! Thank you for reading. _


	14. Fourteen

_Front Porch by Joy Williams_

* * *

"_One Down."_

* * *

The hall was just stirring in the frigid October morning air.

The mug warmed her hands, the skin thinly stretched over her boney fingers. Steam from the coffee rose and swirled in the air and caressed her face. An untouched bowl of sludge sat beside her bent wrist. She couldn't stomach any food this morning. Instead, Thalia took slow sips of her drink and flipped through a book Pops gave her as a wedding gift.

A few murmurs from the Special Operations Squad down the long, rough wooden table was the only source of sound in the still mess hall. They spoke to Eren about the training he would work on that day. Her ears picked up on the discussion of doing a patrol and practicing more with ODM gear until it became an extension of his body.

On Thalia's right, Levi spoke into his mug of tea, "I'm going to have Petra teach you some evasive maneuver techniques with the gear, Eren. Eld will be instructing you on cartography today."

"What will you be doing, Captain?" Petra asked.

"Erwin and I have boring as hell meetings to attend with some of the other brass about what the next expedition will look like." He took a sip.

Thalia flipped the page, pretending she wasn't listening intently and that Levi's eyes weren't scanning the pages out of the corner of his eye. She knew Levi wasn't fooled, but the others didn't have to know she was filing away their every move. Though she was bound to Levi via sacred matrimony (and therefore the Scouts), she didn't have to approve of their futile efforts to kill off the entirety of the Titan species.

However, she was tingling with curiosity on how Eren behaved when in his Titan form. She planned on observing what she could and report to the Don before the Scouts left. She didn't need explicit instructions to know that monthly reports would be one of her duties here for her family.

"What will you be doing today, Thalia?" Petra asked after snapping at Uluo, leaning around Levi.

Thalia looked up from her book with a surprised expression. "I'll be going into the shop today. We're only an hour from town and I have customers to fill orders for," she brushed a strand of hair that fell from its braid behind her ear. She forced herself to soften her features. No need to already appear as pissed as she was about being here.

Eld nodded in approval and Petra smiled softly. "Will you be gone all day?" she asked.

Thalia slipped the edge of the paper under her pointer fingernail. "Yes. Actually, I need to get going now if I want to get a few orders finished." Anything to get out of this damn castle.

She closed her book and pushed back her chair. Technically, she needed to stay in the shop all night if she wanted to finish any of the orders in time, but she wasn't allowed such luxuries anymore.

Bitterness coated her throat.

Just as Thalia pushed in her chair, Levi draped his arm across the back of his own and leveled her with a look she dreaded, and said, "Some of the boys dropped off a gift for you at the shop,"

Her fingers tightened around the spine of the book. "What might that be?" she asked, trying to keep the acid from her voice. She was painfully aware of the calculating gazes of his team analyzing her.

"ODM gear. Erwin wants you to give your professional advice on how to improve our gear in any way. He wants a full report at the end of the week,"

_That bastard._ She nodded her head, struggling to keep her mask of calm tied. "I'll do my best."

The strings of exploits and plotting were starting to tangle, and Thalia's wings were intertwined in them with Levi's to her back. No amount of struggling would get them out now. They were birds caught in a cage, a crow and a raven.

But crows were cunning and ravens intelligent.

Perhaps, Thalia mused as she watched the stable boy saddle her mare, they would be able to survive the snare of schemes.

* * *

A letter sat in the middle of the rough wooden bar, seemingly waiting for Thalia's arrival. It's offwhite envelope glowed in the lantern light. _Crow Mechanic_ was written on the upper right corner in long, thin letters.

Thalia slid her knife tip under the paper fold and scanned the script.

A sly grin darkened her pale face, enhancing a ghoulish appearance in the shadows. The sender requested a weapon commission. One her fingers were twitching to begin formulating on paper, her brain's gears turned with the possibility of ways to make the weapon work.

It was a request of a set of ODM gear designed not to slit the nape of Titans, but to blow holes in the heads of humans.

Her grin thinned into a slit at the sign off of the sender. In elegant cursive, the name Kenny the Ripper filled the bottom portion of the page.

The man had once been one of the Syndicate's soldier's in the days of his youth. The faint memories Thalia had of him were blood splattered and unkind. The image of her mother ushering her from the pipe smoked filled parlor as a man stained in red stalked through the door to her father seeped to the front of her brain.

Thalia immediately began moving, like the motions of a well oiled machine designed for efficiency. She would need the opinion of Pops but with the ODM gear the Scouts so graciously gifted her to enhance she had her blueprints of a new, deadlier, weapon.

The snares around her wings were only tightening.

* * *

Sunlight dripped off the pumpkin orange leaves like honey. Sweet and gentle. A brisk wind swept through the forest, stirring the fallen leaves in a whirlwind on the path before they dispersed into the air.

The mare's hooves stomped on the hard ground, steady and surefooted on the rocky path to the HQ. It didn't startle when a sqirl distubed a pile of leaves and didn't even twitch its ears at the sudden caw of a crow on its perch, eyeing Thalia as she rode by. Trained to be stable in all territories, calm and even paced.

Thalia sucked in a deep breath, relishing the sharp stab of the cold air filling her lungs. It forced her to remember how alive she was. The growing cold brought terrible aches to her body, but it also kept her strong.

Her breath slipped between her lips in a curl of white. The first frost would come soon. The Scouts only had a few weeks at best to leave the safety of the Walls before the snow came, making expeditions too treacherous to attempt. A piece of her relaxed at knowing that they stayed behind the Walls during the winter.

The soft call of a crow and the whispers of the wind through the trees pulled Thalia into peaceful contentment. Her shoulders fell from their curl by her ears and her thighs lessened their tension.

Just as her fingers softened around the reigns as she caught sight of the castle, an ungodly, animalistic cry pulled her straight up in her saddle. It sounded almost like a human but with a chilling edge to its whine.

The mare shook her head and paused. Thalia squeezed her thighs to urge the gentle creature forward and after a moment of coaxing, she began her steady pace.

As Thalia pulled the mare to a halt at the stables, she nodded to the fresh faced stable hand, a boy with a splash of freckles under his eyes and across his nose. "What the hell was that?" She swung down from the saddle and handed off the reigns.

"A Titan, ma'am," he said, brushing a hand down the mare's soft, brown nose.

Thalia's heart froze in her chest. "Come again?"

"Squad leader Hange has two Titans held captive for her research," he said it as though it were a common occurrence. He nodded to the east side of the castle. "They're held just on the other side of the castle. She's probably there if you want to check it out,"

Thalia thanked the boy and spun on her heel. These people were psychotic. Not only did they believe it was their duty to throw their bodies into the mouths of these creatures, but they capture a few stragglers and invite them in their home for tea.

As Thalia rounded the corner with a cloud over her face, her heels planted into the ground.

The back courtyard had been transformed into a makeshift camp. Deep green tents lined the uneven cobblestones like homes. Several soldiers milled about with their ODM gear strapped on and fingers lingering by their blades and eyes sweeping constantly. For good reason, because in the middle held down by spiked rods as thick as Thalia's body were two Titans.

They had lazy grins on their too big faces. Their white teeth flashed in the evening light, as human as could be. One tilted its head up an inch from the ground and stared directly into Thalia's wide eyes.

Monsters. But the King was the most monstrous of all to send children into theur pink mouths.

"Fantastic, aren't they?" Hange suddenly said by Thalia's shoulder.

Thalia's heart jumped in surprise but she held her cool composure. She slid the scientist a raised eyebrow. "If you say so. I prefer bolts and sheets of metal to staring at these beasts all day,"

Hange placed a firm hand of comradery on Thalia's shoulder. Her fingers wrapped around the bone and muscle easily. "Yes, but this is the future. I plan on finding out the secrets of the Titans with my Seany and Bean,"

_She named them, _Thalia lamented. She forced her features to not twist with disgust. "Cute names,"

"Why thank you, I named them after two cannibles from before the Walls," she said, her voice rising with excitement.

And then, without any coaxing from Thalia, the woman launched into a sick, twisted tale of two cannibals who ate travelers while Thalia stood like a tree, trying not to snap. The Titans watched her and she watched right back, a fire of hatred glimmering in the coles of her dark eyes.

Her fingers curled into the palm of her hand, nails cutting into the soft flesh as a young soldier boy walked by with no fear and Bean's eyes followed hungerly.

Thalia nodded as Hange kept going on, now about the anatomy of the Titans and let herself be pulled into one of the many tents, all the while allowing the flames of hatred lick higher in her bones.

* * *

"Are you coming to bed?" Thalia asked Levi, who was hunched over his desk, a full stack of papers before him.

The night had long ago settled over the mountainside, plunging the castle in a silent darkness that crept into every crack and crevice. Chills swept through the stones and through Thalia's clothes to her bones. Dinner had been poor and just as tasteless as breakfast, but Thalia forced herself to eat. She couldn't risk losing any more weight before winter hit, forcing her to start building her bodily strength from ground zero.

When he didn't reply, she placed her book on her lap and readjusted her pillow against the headboard. "Levi?" She pulled the heavy quilt up to cover her shoulder while she was sitting up. She twisted her legs under her and propped the book up with one hand.

"No,"

"You need sleep,"

He took a deep breath, his back expanding with the inhalation. "I have too much work to do,"

Thalia chewed on the bottom of her lip. She debated on telling Levi of the letter she received from Kenny but decided against it for now. If Kenny was contacting her, it had to be on family business. She planned to send a letter to her father in the morning inquiring on the request. Prioritizing the family's cause came first and one couldn't be too cautious.

She promised him the truth and he would get it. After her family was secured.

"At least try to get some sleep soon," she said, turning back to her book. The words blurred and swam on the page as her bones sank into the cushion of the pillow. "I saw the Titans Hange's been working on today,"

This got his attention. His back straightened and he twisted to face her. "You didn't get close, did you?" His face was calm but she saw a flicker of concern push at the space between his brows.

Thalia softly closed the book shut and leaned over to place it on the nightstand. "No, I kept my distance. They kept a close eye on me. I had no idea how complex they were," she settled in the pillows, curling her legs to her chest to sink into the warmth. "Hange went on for a solid hour. I'm practically an expert at this point,"

"Don't go in that area again," he said, turning back to the papers.

Thalia's hackles rose at the order. "You don't get to order me around like one of your soldiers, Levi."

But as soon as the words left her lips, she wanted to snatch them back and stuff them down her throat.

In the tense silence as he worked, ignoring her jab, Thalia pushed off the heavy covers. The October night air bit at her exposed clothing, seeping through the thin material to the bone.

Carefully, with legs trembling from fully supporting her weight, she reached his curled back. With a steadying breath and a whisper of doubt in the depths of her brain, she tenderly wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her chin on his shoulder, sagging against his back. His spine pushed into her chest.

His shoulders tensed at the initial weight of her chin and then relaxed. Her laced fingers pressed against his chest, just under his heart. Saints, he was thin. Thalia could feel every rib of his chest and the thrumming beat of his heart pressing into her fingers.

A sigh escaped his lips. Carefully, he leaned back in the chair and gazed out into the inky night, head tilted back a fraction.

"I'm sorry," Thalia said into his shoulder after a beat. His clavicle pushed into her cheek.

"Dumbass," he said, though not unkindly. It danced off his tongue lightly, almost endearly but not quite so.

He had lost countless soldiers to those Titans. Of course he would be unnerved by her approaching one. Perhaps his phrasing could use some work, but that was him.

Crass, rude, and childish all wrapped in the clothing of a man forced to serve humanity. Forced by her father and grandfather.

The ring on Thalia's finger grew heavy.

"I can now understand why you hate them so much," she said. "They're freaky as hell,"

A snort rumbled in his throat. "Freaky doesn't even begin to describe it. No, you can't understand, not until you see your comrades bitten in two."

The words were as cold as the air pressing against them but as true as the stars shimmering in the sky. Thalia truly wouldn't be able to understand the horror of witnessing a fellow soldier being eaten alive. She would never feel her heart still as a friend would be screaming for help and then be silenced in a sickening crunch, molars ripping apart bone and tendon and muscle.

Her arms tightened around his shoulders and her nose pressed into his warm neck, just under the pulsing artery. She would never have the memories of seeing one dart with the speed Hange described with disturbing detail. How many subordinates had she lost?

She prayed to the God her mother served that she would never witness one of these children being ripped apart by a Titan.

When she killed, it was for a cause. To protect. Either her family or the people of the Underground City. But to watch a child being torn into while all they had done was wish to serve their people? That, she could not stomach. And she could not stomach the men who ordained their deaths.

"Isabel and Farlan," she began softly. "They were killed by the Titans. My sister remembered them visiting the bakery with you." In the corners of her brain she knew that's how they died. But she couldn't help the craving to have the answer from him. The first of the many questions she had kept at bay all these years.

Levi's Adam's Apple bobbed against her arm and his chin brushed the crown of her head as he nodded. "It was our first expedition outside the walls. They died because of me,"

Slowly, Thalia straightened. She kept one arm around his shoulders and lifted the other, gently brushing strands of his hair.

One of the many soft gestures her mother did to sooth Thalia when she was just a little girl and the pains lacing through her legs were just too much. Actions Thalia then did for Fern after the child awoke from the nightmares she was prone to.

The silence grew heavier and heavier but Thalia waited. She cracked open the door but did not push. The trust Levi held towards her was as delicate as the ODM gear she fixed so often.

"It was my arrogance," he said dully. Her fingers swept along the shaved section of his head. "I wanted to kill Erwin and I left them alone in Titan territory. They were with their squad, I thought they would be safe." He paused. "When I came back, they had been ambushed. They died because of my thirst for revenge over something that didn't matter in the end."

A chill ran down Thalia's spine.

She brushed her hand down the base of his neck, thumb pressing into the taut muscles and tendons. "I'm going to be honest with you, I don't know how to respond to that." She said softly. "Kind words aren't what I'm accustomed to giving, unless you're a little kid." She settled both of her hands on his shoulders and pressed her lips to the crown of his head. "But I know it wasn't your fault that they died. The Titans were the ones who killed them,"

"Which is why I sided with the Scouts in the end. To free humanity from them. So that others won't die like they did," he said. He watched her bowed form in the reflection of the window.

Thalia kept her face hidden so he didn't see the flash in her eyes. She pressed another kiss in his hair and straightened, mask of calm fully on. He didn't know of her opinions of the Scout Regiment, and planned to keep it that way.

They stayed silent. Thalia smoothed his hair and he stared out the window, face tight and eyes unfocused. The face of a man who had witness stomach churning horrors time and time again, and kept charging head first into.

Her thumb traced the sharp outline of his cheekbone. She wondered what he would look like if he had an endless supply of food like those in the capitol did. Would he still be as thin as a bird?

"Will you come to bed now?" She asked, watching his face in the window.

He blinked. He leaned forward and Thalia's hands fell away from his shoulders. "No, I still have paperwork to finish." His words were hollow and flat. He cleared his throat and mindlessly shuffled the stack of papers.

Deciding that it would do no benefit to push, Thalia relented. Bidding him a soft goodnight, she limped to the bed. Standing for so long and at such a harsh angle had pushed her legs to the limit. But it had been worth it.

As she curled under the sheets, she mentally scratched the story off in her mind. Another one of his mysteries had been solved and shaped her brief knowledge of her husband.

* * *

_AN: Thank you so much for reading! I was originally planning on having Thalia be a much more passive character, but wondered what things would look like with her being slightly more involved. Nothin' too crazy, just helping some of the strings pull together. Please tell me what you think, hearing your feedback truly makes me smile and encourages me to keep on writing._

_ValerianOrchid: Thank you! metaphors are kinda tricky but I've loved growing in them. _

_Peggy Scribbles: You're too kind! Levi really is a difficult character to write, but he's fun all the same :)_


	15. Fifteen

_When the party's over - Billie Eilish _

* * *

"_Here, She Lies."_

* * *

Afternoon sunlight dripped through the window, spreading across the wooden floor like spilled molasses. The room was cramped and surprisingly warm despite the chill still clinging to the morning. A long table filled most of the space with chairs on either side one crowing the head.

In those chairs sat the officers of the Scouting Regiment. Erwin Smith sat at the head, rigid and proud in his seat. He scanned the table with calculating eyes, a gentle smile softening his granite face.

The other seats were filled with the other respecting officers. Hange sat by Erwin's right hand with Levi at his left. Beside Hange was a man that was similar in stature to Erwin, but had a messy crop of hair and scruff on his chin. He had his arms crossed over his broad and listened to Hange softly talking to Erwin with slitted eyes.

Thalia quickly filed away distinctive features about every other officer in the room in hopes to remember them and later implore their histories. She stood at the opposite end of the table, right across from Erwin. Her feet were solid under her and her hands steady behind her back, thumb pressing into the small of her spine. She watched the sunlight shift on the floor from behind Erwin, ignoring the curious glances of the officers.

Erwin cleared his throat. The soft chatter died down and all paid rapt attention to their commander.

"As you all have heard, Hange's Titans were killed some time late last night," he began. A low rumble spread down the table and Hange's lips thinned.

_So that was what the ungodly screeching was about, _Thalia thought. She had been in the supply room replacing a set of ODM gear she had fixed when she heard a high pitched wail coming from the courtyard. Not ten minutes later, a young Scout found her and informed her she was to attend an official meeting.

"We have reason to suspect that it was one of our own," he continued, voice sturdy. "Which is why we need you, Thalia,"

Thalia raised a brow, already knowing what he wanted her to do. "I assume you want me to inspect the gear?" she asked.

He nodded. He rested his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together, resting his chin on his knuckles. "You have proven your skill as a mechanic many times over. You are knowledgeable about the gear and you are a third party,"

Her thumb's knuckle pressed harder into her vertebra. "I have no biase to any of the soldiers. So I cannot have a tainted report,"

A smile crept on his face. The smile of a cunning predator knowing it had its pray tight in its maw. "Precisely. Are you willing?"

Thalia considered the offer. It wasn't _really_ an offer, not one she could turn down and walk away from. Whether she liked it or not, Erwin did have power over her, and he was aware of it.

But he did spare her pride by posing it as an offer. An offer she cannot refuse.

Thalia tilted her chin a fraction, lowering her sharp gaze. "It would be an honor,"

He sat up and his broad shoulders relaxed a fraction. "Perfect. I will have the soldiers prepared by noon." He stood and the chorus of chair legs scraping on wood followed a second behind. "I hope to have a report by morning,"

She tightened her jaw. "Yes, sir." No continuations of her orders would happen that day.

The room emptied, leaving Thalia standing at the end of the table with the sun glowing brightly with midmorning energy.

A new weapon to design, a rifle to perfect, automated limbs to assist Pops with, a plow's blade to replace, and several more mundane items. And now this. Her throat tightened at the added workload and her stomach turned.

She wished with every atom in her body that her mother was by her side. Thalia did not know what she would have said, but Thalia needed her mother's steadfast presence.

"Hey," Levi's soft voice said from beside her shoulder. "You look like you're about to be sick,"

Thalia didn't look away from the blue sky. A free sky. "I'm okay. I'm just tired,"

He snorted. She could feel his presence, but he didn't touch. He never did. Her skin practically cried for some form of pressure on her arm. A whisper, a brush, a shoulder pressed against hers.

Saints. She was a blubbering child. She wrapped her arms around her middle and slowly blinked. Her chest ached to be away from here. To be home.

_Please comfort me without making me tell you why._

Levi's boots scuffed harshly against the wood flooring as he retreated away from her. "I'll be in my office if you need me,"

And as the door clicked shut, Thalia allowed her controlled features to fall into glassy eyes and a wobbly mouth. She allowed her hands to shake against her burning chest but kept her legs strong.

Thalia was a Wolfstien. She was a Crow. A syndicate's daughter. And as such, she was firm in her standing and would not waver to any one, or any thing. Her mother taught her that.

Brutal, calloused hands; a tongue as sharp as the steal she mended, smoke in her lungs, and blood under her nails. A killer streak but a conflicted heart crafted from the hateful fires of deceit. Her father molded her to be that.

That was who she was.

And she was alone.

* * *

It took all of Thalia's will to not refuse letting the Military Police monitor the gear checks.

The checks were mundane and dull, despite the looming presence of them. Thalia swept her eyes over the gears and guts and pulleys with expert speed. Only once did she give a tick on the piece of paper in her grip with the pen. It was one of the young recruit's gear. A blond haired boy that tried to stand tall behind his table. Sky blue eyes and an uncertain mouth crafted his features. He watched her with a knowledgeable gaze, his round eyes glancing at the silver ring on her finger and then her face before landing on the spot above her head.

She could basically feel the gears turning in his head as he watched her move to the next set.

One week later, she lay in bed with her legs aching and back tight. Her sketchbook lay beside her head, untouched. Her arm pressed into her eyes, the coolness of her skin alleviating the pressure behind them.

Her lungs burned with ancient smoke. Old pains crawled into her muscles, burrowing until they found their home deep in the tissue of her legs like mites.

October twentieth. She had lived here for two weeks now. She had given Erwin his reports and offered advice to improve their gear but his demands kept flowing like a tundra.

Thalia lived her days in the shop and spent her nights at her desk. And though Ida was just a door away, Thalia saw her for too brief moments during the mornings before the breakfast rush. Thalia's chest ached with a hollowness she had never known was possible as her family lived their lives without her by their side.

To fill up carved sensation behind her ribs, Thalia began to go out into the training woods before curfew to practice her sharp shooting with her rifle. The heaviness of the metal against her chest, the smoke from the gunpowder filling her lungs, and the satisfying whizz of the bullet striking the target allowed her to momentarily forget the loneliness eating away her flesh.

Thalia curled on her side on the bed that now felt far too vast for just her. She knew Levi would not be an affectionate husband, but she did not expect him to be an absent one.

Though he was bitter and crass and had gunpowder under his skin about to ignite, he was still her best friend. He had been there for her for six years. And though most of those years had been through letters, she felt closer to him when he had been hundreds of miles away. And now, he was holed up in his office down the hall while his wife lay alone.

Always alone.

Loneliness was something Thalia thought she knew. But as she crawled under the heavy quilt (having given up on working), she realized she had never experienced loneliness at all. Not true loneliness. Not the kind that made every heartbeat echo in a chest that was empty. That made sleeping a chore but being awake even more difficult. That turned food into ash once inside your mouth instead of igniting your tastebuds. That made her skin crave a touch she would not receive.

Thalia fell into troubled dreams with the open air as her only comfort against her body.

* * *

_AN: __And the drama begins. Don't worry, it won't be too much. I'm not a fan of stupid drama, but there has to be tangible troubles. _

_A formatting question for you all, would you like me to post pictures along with the chapters, or do you like it how it is? I would love any and all feedback! Thank you guys so much for reading and commenting, you have no idea. My semester is about to kick my butt, so updates will slow very soon. But I have an ending in mind, so don't worry. Love you all! _


	16. Sixteen

_Thalia's lament - Eight by Sleeping at Last_

* * *

"_Forget Me Not."_

* * *

They zipped through the trees like they had wings of eagles, flying through the leaf covered air with skilled accuracy. The wings imprinted on their backs seemed to come alive, pushing the soldiers faster, harder, smoother. It was beautiful. How Thalia wished she could fly alongside them, even as her braces grew heavy around her thighs.

Their blades flashed in the late evening sunlight, slicing through the dummy Titans like butter.

A swell of useless pride surged in Thalia's empty chest as she watched the Scouts fly through the air on the gear she had modified. Simple modifications that made a world of difference. An additional pulley there, an adjustment of the pressurized tanks, a more rigorous cleaning process...things that seemed mundane to her but blew their minds out of the water.

Leaves crunched under heavy feet as another soldier joined her watching beside under a sturdy oak.

"You did a marvelous job with the gear, Thalia," Erwin said.

Thalia's fingers curled tightly around the strap around her shoulder that was keeping her rifle up. She had just finished her target practicing for the day. "Thank you, sir. They turned out quite nicely," she said.

A silhouette sliced across the air into the skeleton branches. They did turn out nicely. She had to leave hours before sunup for the past week and set up a makeshift shop in a closet, but the Special Operations Squad had their new and improved set. It had been worth the heavy bags and sharp pains in her back and legs.

Erwin shifted on his feet, almost nervously. "We plan to leave for the expedition in two week's time," he said. "Do you think you can have some more of the gear fixed?"

Thalia kept silent. Another dozen of sets to work on plus her orders that were terribly backed up. But she didn't have a choice.

"Of course, sir." She said flatly.

"I plan to have a space created for you to work in. That way, you can keep our equipment here and adjust as needed."

Her ribs felt fractured as she nodded. Another string wove around her fluttering wings, holding them tight. "I'll do what is necessary, sir." Another lock on the cage. Less of a reason to leave the grounds as often as she did. Less of a reason to see her family.

A sigh escaped Erwin's lips. "Tonight we recruit new soldiers," he said, strong voice oddly soft.

Thalia slid her gaze from the birds in the sky to his stoney face. "From the cadets?"

He nodded. A cloud passed over his face, twisting his calm exterior into something more brittle. "Yes. More cadets. More lives to be spent."

They were cruel words. Words any person with a standard set of morals would gawk at. But Thalia's morals were shot to hell and she saw right through his thin veil of calm. She had heard Levi utter similar phrases when he used to come to her shop after expeditions as she held his face and brushed back his hair. Her father spoke of such things in the dead of night when the day was spent and all facades dropped.

"I'll make sure that their gear won't fail them," Thalia promised. She softened her stoney exterior a fraction, just enough to tell him that she was genuine.

A curious smile pushed up his lips and pulled at the corners of his eyes. "Levi chose well,"

Thalia was too weary to feel any form of pride warming her core. It wasn't like either of them had much of a choice. She had her father and Erwin to thank for that.

But as the commander stood beside her, with his shoulders slightly dipped and his fists clenched, a drop of the blame melted away. He was desperate. For what, she wasn't sure, but she recognized desperation a mile away. She saw it in the lines of Ida's tight smile and Kaine's grip on his books. She heard it in Vincent's words and felt it in her father's actions.

She saw it in the reflection of the mirror.

They were all thirsting for a drink from a well. A well to satisfy them fully, for whatever their bodies craved for.

Revenge. Peace. Rest. Love.

Thalia remained solid by Erwin as the sun dipped lower under the tree line, casting the forest into an eerie twilight. A sharp whistle blew out as a single for the Scouts to stop training for the day.

The Special Operations Squad landed with birdlike elegance on the ground. Their faces were bright with moral and their words rang out proudly from their chests.

Thalia watched them interact with a comradery that made her fingers tighten around the leather strap in remembrance of her siblings. As they drew near, with Levi leading the pack, Thalia's blood froze.

Petra pushed at Eld's chest, who yanked on her honey brown ponytail in retaliation. But it wasn't the action which made her blood slow to a sludge. It was Petra's hair. Hair which was held back in a green ribbon. The ribbon she had gifted Levi years ago.

Her mother's ribbon.

Red seeped into the edges of Thalia's vision, tainting the darkening wood with crimson. Every muscle in her body tensed painfully and blood roared in her ears.

As Petra raised a hand in greeting, Thalia's thinning patience snapped.

Kicking up mulch and dead leaves under her heels, Thalia marched away from the bewildered group. Her legs moved robotically and her breaths burned in her lungs, setting them on fire that had consumed her mother's corpse after the hanging.

Away. She needed to get away.

The bedroom oak door shook as she slammed it shut. She tossed the gun on the bed carelessly and paced. She paced until her feet ached and her legs burned.

Of all the things Levi could gift Petra, her mother's ribbon had to be it. The one possession Thalia cherished with her whole being. It had killed her to give it to him but she had done it anyway, hoping he would notice the chink in her amour.

Apparently, he had not. Or did not care.

Her eyes burned as tears begged to fall, but she did not let them. Pushing the heels of her palms to her eyes to cool them, she took another burning breath.

Part of her wanted to fight Levi. Yell at him, scream in his face, make him regret giving Petra the ribbon. It was an old piece of her heart. Several months ago, she might have done just that with no regrets.

But now...now she couldn't. She had no desire. No fire licked at her bones in urgency to bring anyone to pain.

And it frightened her. All her life she had been a dangerous flickering flame. Seemingly harmless with a bite that could rip a man's head clean off his shoulders. Ruthless and cunning. Her inventions had been the means to end many people's lives, and it had brought her a sick sense of satisfaction when they did their job.

But now it was gone.

She was yanking on her hair when the door swung open and shut with a sharp click of the hinges.

"What the hell was that?" Levi demanded, standing with his back pressed to the door.

Slowly, Thalia uncurled her fingers from the ends of her hair. Her heart thundered in her chest. Saints, she couldn't do this. She couldn't be open.

She couldn't be vulnerable.

With her back to him, she took a shuddering breath. "I snapped, I'm sorry," she said the familiar words easily. He had enough to worry about and she wasn't going to be a sniffling wife all because she felt like her husband was _ignoring_ her.

"My legs were hurting and I needed to get back to clean the rifle," she nodded to her prized invention she had tossed carelessly on the unmade bed.

"Bullshit," he bit out.

Thalia whirled around, a flame as weak as the sun spilling across the floor licking at her bones and a faint snarl pulling back her lips, but all the harsh words died before they could formulate when she met his gaze.

His chin was tilted up and his mouth was firm. _He_ was firm. But his eyes were not. They shifted around the room, scanned her trembling body, calculating and formulating. They were intelligent and wise, seeing right through her.

Slowly, as though she were a wounded animal, he took a step, floor boards creaking under his weight. And another. And another until he stood a breath away from her. He tilted his head back a fraction to see her wide eyes and tight face.

She couldn't tell him why her eyes stung and how her heart thrashed behind her ribs. She couldn't unlatch the chest she so dutifully locked away in the depths of her heart.

"Talk to me, Lia," he said, words barely above a whisper. Patience was not his forte, but he was trying. "You used to always tell me what was going on in that clever head of yours,"

But that had been before the constant deceit and lies had warped and fogged her vision until she didn't know what she could tell him.

She wrapped her arms around her stomach, hugging the emptiness away. "I'm okay," she tried weakly. But her mask of straight brows and a hard mouth was cracking. He could see right through her, and part of her hated it.

He studied her face. "You promised me you would tell the truth. I need you to trust me. I trust you."

He trusted her. When she gave no reason to hold that trust in her hands. Hands that were bound to break it again.

The thread attached to her racing heart was beginning to fray. "I miss my family," she said around the swelling of her throat. How pathetic was she? She was homesick like a soft child. She was in her twenties, for Saints' sake, not teens.

His face didn't change. He tilted his head to the side, strands of hair falling into his gray eyes. Her fingers ached to brush them aside. "That was what set you off?" he asked, knowing full well that it wasn't the full truth.

Her arms tightened around her midsection. "The ribbon," she began. Her words trembled and she paused, swallowing hard. He trusted her. She trusted him. She could say it. "It was my mother's,"

He reached into his jacket and pulled out the prized possession, letting it dangle between his fingers.

Thalia's hand immediately reached for it, the pads of her trembling finger trips brushing the soft fabric. He had taken it back from Petra.

"She died when I was young by hanging," she said without thinking, too fixated on the ribbon to think about her words.

Levi pulled the ribbon back a fraction. "Hanging?"

Shit.

Thalia snapped back into reality. Panic swelled in her throat, pounding through her bloodstream into her heart. Her mother's death was on public record, it had been a spectacle to warn others to not seek out life before the walls. She could tell him about death.

But could she bring herself to remember it like that in its full force? To speak it meant it meant accepting that it happened, and she hadn't spoken of her mother's death since the funeral.

When she looked into his face, she knew she somehow could. His hard lines had faded. The bags under his eyes, which usually hardened his exterior, had softened the sharp edges.

Moving to the bed, she picked up the rifle, placing it by the bed. Her fingers lingered on the cool wood. "She knew of things before the walls. The King had her hung and burned to warn others who might seek out any sort of information. _For the safety of the people, _he said." For the safety of his crown and the fat bellies of the nobles.

"That's why your father has been meeting with Erwin," Levi said, coming up beside her and straightening the twisted sheets. "He's plotting some sort of revolution,"

Thalia shot him a bewildered look. "You figured it out?" All this time and he knew?

He didn't look up from his work. "I've been piecing it together since the engagement. I was waiting for you to tell explain things yourself,"

Thalia felt like Levi had shot her with her rifle, right where the ribs and cartilage met to form her ribcage. Stunned, she fumbled with the sheets, tucking in the edges and folding the quilt across the neatened pillows.

Levi knew. Her cunning husband was aware of her avoidance and yet he waited for her to explain her actions. It touched her brittle heart in the oddest of ways. On one hand, she was bitter that he didn't tell her. On the other, it was a chance for her to be honest with him. To keep building upon his delicate trust he so tenderly offered.

They settled beside one another on the edge of the bed, several inches between their shoulders and hips. The air grew thick with Thalia's unspoken words as Levi waited. His fingers tapped against his knee and his heel bounced with gentle thudding on the wooden floor.

Thalia took a breath. She had made it this far. She could say a little more to satisfy his thirst for truth.

Just as Thalia pulled the courage from the depths of her heart, a tentative knock shattered the stiff silence. The door cracked open and Petra's head poked through, a sheepish smile on her face and hair spilling around her shoulders.

"Thalia, your brother is here to see you," she said, eyeing to couple who sat too far apart to be in love.

Thalia shot to her feet, all thoughts of being truthful to Levi gone. "Vincent?" she asked. If Vincent were here, blood would be spilled. Death followed his footsteps like a hound.

Petra shook her head, her loose hair falling in her doe like eyes. "Kaine. He's waiting in the dinner hall for you." She bowed away, closing the door with a soft click.

The way Petra said his name, as though it were a promise, made Thalia's toes curl in her boots.

She turned to Levi, who was still seated on the bed with his hands braced behind him, watching her with a guarded gaze. She sensed the storm brewing under his flesh. Try as he might, his patience only wore for so long.

With steeled nerves, Thalia reached out, brushing her fingers across his jaw and curling them under his chin. "You want to know what drives my family, don't you? Not just in the revolution. But in general," she said.

He didn't reply. His face was smooth and expressionless as he stared her down; the only answer she needed. He craved knowledge, just like her.

When did they turn into this? Not long ago, they had danced with their arms holding each other tight, speaking gentle words into the other's ear. But now, they had drifted apart to different melodies and could barely tolerate each other.

And it was Thalia's fault.

No energy zipped through her skin to her heart as she cradled his head in her hands and stood between his legs. "If you sleep beside me tonight and I wake with you in bed, I will tell you why my family is trying to convince Erwin to side with us. Deal?" She scanned his face, hoping for a twitch, a tick, something that would let her know he was processing her request. Understanding the meaning behind it.

His hands settled on her hips. His fingers curled, the nails biting into her flesh. "Go to your brother," he said.

Thalia left him behind, heart decaying in her thorn invested chest.

* * *

_AN: __**hifivebuddy: **__Your sweet comments absolutely made my day! There are things in the fic I'm going to go back and polish up, so if you spot anything that makes no sense, please tell me! A few things in my previous AN were directed at a different audience on Quotev, I just forgot to remove it, lol! _

_I'm cranking out three chapters right now, would you guys like them this weekend or spaced out? I'm sick with an infection in my lungs, so I've had time to write. God bless you lovelies, I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings :)_


	17. Seventeen

_Kaine's Theme: The Poet by The Arcadian Wild_

* * *

"_The Prince."_

* * *

The Prince of the Underground sat with his back to the door of the mess hall. His spine was curled over and in his hands he cradled a mug. The last bits of sunlight streamed through the windows and spilled across the stone floor. No torches were lit to ward off the approaching darkness of the evening.

Thalia rounded the long table and sat opposite of him, curling her fingers around one another on the wood. Kaine looked up from his mug and gave her a beautiful smile, all straight teeth and pearly whites. He enveloped her thin hands in his much larger, warmer ones. Her shoulders relaxed at the mundane touch.

"Why are you here?" Thalia asked, watching her younger brother closely.

Kaine turned her hands palms up and then rotated them back together. "Honestly, Ida was supposed to be here but something came up, so she sent me. How are things between you and Levi?"

Her letters to Father. She had been so preoccupied with her new workload that she never sent a letter to her father inquiring about Kenny or updating the Don on her marital situation. She had grown lazy to her familial duties since being here.

Thalia exhaled slowly through her nose. "I'm sorry," she said. She had been saying that far too often as of late. "Erwin has me updating their ODM gear and I have a curfew to follow. Things have slipped my mind."

Kaine arched a perfect brow but said nothing.

So, Thalia quietly recited all she had gathered while living with the Scouts, aware that the stone walls could be listening. She told him about the two Titans Hange had captive for research and how they were killed by a soldier, possibly a recruit (though she didn't believe so). She gave the date of the expedition and that they planned to use Eren as a key user in it (though she was not supposed to be privy to those details, soldiers talked-they were far too trusting here).

While she spoke, Kaine's grip on her hands tightened until her bones were aching. But Thalia didn't pull away. She needed the pressure. It stabilized her, reminding her that she was still breathing and alive. Her skin and bones and ligaments craved the comforting pressure.

"I do have a question for Father, though. Perhaps you know the answer since I haven't lived at home since I was seventeen," she said.

Kaine nodded his head, his jet black hair falling into his crystal blue eyes. "Ask away,"

Thalia's wedding band pressed into her finger coldly. "What do you know about Kenny the Ripper?" she said softly, aware of the weight of his name.

A cloud passed over Kaine's face. His grip on her hands tightened even more, to the point of her shifting in his grip but he held on. "Did he reach out to you?" He asked, voice dangerously low.

Thalia studied his reaction before answering, "Yes."

Kaine leaned forward, eyes wide and wild like a wolf. "Kenny is a madman, despite what Vincent might tell you. He wasn't called Kenny the Ripper for nothing,"

His knee jerk reaction made her lips thin and brows lower. "What did he do? I remember him being a soldier for the Don when I was little." Whatever he did must have been brutal enough for Kaine to be wary of him, but not enough for Vincent to be careful of. And that was concerning. Kaine was vastly more soft than Vincent ever will be. He never had his childhood innocence ripped away with the snap of a rope like the eldest son did.

Kaine finally let go of Thalia's hands and she rubbed the throbbing bones gently. He raked his fingers through his hair, causing the soft strands to stand up. "He stayed associated with the family after officially breaking away from the Syndicate. Apparently a few years after Mom died, he lost it. Killed over one hundred MP's."

A cruel light ignited in Thalia's eyes, a flame Kaine didn't fail to notice. "I assume he advocated you to make something. What did he ask you to do?"

Thalia played with her wedding band, spinning it around her finger, suddenly aware of the implications of the man's request. "He wanted ODM gear capable of killing people,"

Kaine sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Lia, that man is a monster," he shook his head.

Her fingers froze their spinning. "And so are we," she retorted. "What if he's in alliance with Father and the Don?" He would be a powerful ally if he truly did commit all those killings.

Kaine leaned back in his chair and regarded his sister carefully. He rolled his lips together in thought. "I'll ask Father," he said at last.

Thalia nodded, already crunching the numbers in her head and what she would need. But the new gear Erwin asked of her would have to take precedence, whether she liked it or not. When the Scouts were gone she would shut herself in the shop bury herself in work, both to distract herself from their absence and to get the job done.

The two siblings sat in the chilly mess hall and spoke until the sunlight was completely gone from the sky and the torches on the stone walls were lit. Kaine knew little of the plans the Don and their father were creating, though that did not surprise Thalia. The less others know, the less of a risk of someone finding out about their little plot to overthrow the King.

Slowly, Scouts trickled in for their bland dinner of potato sludge and rock hard rolls and the conversation shifted to more mundane topics, such as Kaine's interest in writing a novel and the newest paints imported from the capitol.

Thalia had missed her brother's silvery voice and ringing laugh more than she realized. Kaine had always been the more idealistic of the siblings, and his innocence had yet to fade despite the spilled blood that soaked through the canvas of his childhood. Throughout the murders he had committed with his soft hands, he still remand gentle and unjaded, just like Ida.

Vincent and Thalia, however, were a different story. They bore a striking resemblance to their Father, in both appearance and temperament. They would forever be the black smudge of their family's portrait of the perfect, loving, family. With their sunken cheekbones and black obsidian eyes, they were the reapers of death, just as their Father intended.

As the siblings began to end their conversation, with stomachs barely full, bowls of mush barely touched, and rolls ripped into, the Special Operations Squad settled at their table. Petra sat beside Kaine, who gave her a smile that softened his striking features. His eyes dropped to her speaking lips before meeting her doe eyes.

Thalia didn't miss the action and frowned. Her heart twisted at his soft smile and the red that dusted Petra's cheekbones. A different conversation for a different time.

The Scouts were not soldiers one should catch the affections of, especially not Kaine's. The mortality rate was terribly high and Thalia would rather remain paralyzed before she let her brother fall for one.

* * *

_AN: And here's another chapter, more having to do with filling in some holes and pushing the plot forward._

_**Minerva Andromeda:**_ _Here's part two of the three I have written. I have one more I'm finishing up and polishing! Thank you so much, you're so sweet :) I enjoy writing their relationship, though it's nothing like what I'll ever have to deal with, which makes writing a bit tricky sometimes. _

_**Hifivebuddy: **__Ah, but Lia has done Levi wrong in some aspects! She's a morally gray character who's had a hellish childhood, I love writing her and know that she can do the most devious things. I can't wait to showcase her more cruel side in the future of the story :) I hope the way I intend to bring her back will satisfy you some! _

_Thank you all for reviewing, you have noooo idea how much of a motivation it is. And it doesn't have to be a pat on the back review, I want to hear true opinions and where I can improve! I love you all, God bless. _


	18. Eighteen

_Sweet Afton by Nickel Creek_

* * *

"_An Open Heart and Open Affections_."

* * *

Thalia startled from her restless slumber by the bed dipping under someone's weight. Warmth flooded the right half of her body as a shoulder and leg pressed into her. Her eyelids flew open and her heart raced as she shot up, fingers reaching for a knife that was not in her waistband.

Levi blinked up at her, a lopsided his mouth in a lopsided twist. He was leaning back on a pillow as though he had always been there, with his fingers laced over his stomach and one leg bent up.

Thalia pressed her palm against her chest to calm her racing heart. "By the Saints, Levi," she breathed.

"Did I startle you?" he asked, knowing the answer full well.

She resisted flicking his ear. Suffocating him with her pillow sounded rather satisfying. Instead, she leaned her shoulder against the stone wall behind her and regarded him carefully. "What gave you that idea? No wonder you're a captain, your observations are impeccable,"

The peculiar twist of his lips grew in the shadows of the waning moonlight drifting through the cracks of the curtain.

Thalia rubbed her arms covered with her long sleepshirt to ward off the bone numbing chill. "Were there many recruits that signed up for the Scouts?" she asked, avoiding the topic she promised to discuss. Her memory flashed to the brief conversation with Erwin that evening about that night being the recruitment ceremony for the freshly graduated cadet squad.

She prayed none of the children signed their lives away to this Saints forsaken division.

To Thalia's dismay, Levi nodded his head. "Eight pledged their lives humanity tonight," he said. His tone was as bleak as the void in her chest.

She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around the wool of her pants. "I see." She chewed on her cracked lips, the skin pulled raw by her habit.

The two remained still in the darkness. A low rumble of thunder shook the castle, a warning of the approaching storm. Thalia's legs had been sending tremors through the muscles and bones all day, making her painfully aware of the shift in air pressure. She rubbed at her shins unconsciously, trying to push away the constant throbbing.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation," she finally said, eyes roaming the shadow engulfed room. They landed on her clothing chest, where her mother's Bible was safely tucked away in the folds of her wedding dress.

Levi shifted, pushing his hands into the mattress to sit more upright. His head sank into the pillow, hair falling like a halo of darkness around him. "Knowing why my wife's family is so hellbent on chopping off the head of the monarch would be rather refreshing,"

A twisted smile warped her face. "Fair enough." She took a deep breath, her lungs burning with the nightair. Her arms tightened around her knees as they pushed further into her thin chest.

She could do this. She wasn't betraying her family's trust if he was being swayed to their side. It might aid in it, actually.

"It's quite simple, really. My mother was killed because she learned of life before the walls," Thalia began. The words stuck to her throat like honey but she forced them out. "An MP discovered a book in her possession dated prior to the walls and informed an officer, which then lead to an investigation that killed her."

Levi remained uncharacteristically still as Thalia continued, her eyes still on the chest. If she tore them away she would lose her nerve. "I was twelve when it all happened. The whole family was under constant watch from the MP's. When the government finally decided that my siblings and I knew nothing and that Father was just an owner of a bakery, we were let go. But not without the eyes of the townsfolk constantly watching us." Thallia swallowed harshly at the echoing whispers that followed her and Ida when they went to market. "So we retreated Underground. Mother's father, the Don, took us in."

"I thought you were born in the Underground City?" Levi asked.

"I was," Thalia replied. "But after my birth showcased the chance of even the wealthy children growing ill, Grandfather insisted we live up top."

Levi hummed. "Your mother was the Don's daughter. Your father married into the Syndicate,"

Her clever husband. Always so observant, patiently connecting the lines to the portrait of her past.

Finally, she ripped her eyes away from the silhouette of the chest, settling them heavily on Levi. Her fingers twitched to push his hair off his forehead. "And so that is the story of revenge. Grandfather never could quite stomach the needless deaths of the children you call Scouts, and Mother's death only fueled the slow flame. He's a patient man and has been looking for some way to get back at the government and what they condemn.

"It isn't just because of Mom. The whole system is shot to hell, especially those who live in the Underground City. Grandfather may be a bastard but he isn't soulless. Mom's death just finally made him snap." They may be monsters, but even beasts had hearts. That's what she told herself, time and time again when she took a life.

As if reading her thoughts, Levi asked, "Aren't the killings your family commits just as soulless?"

Thalia hated his fair point. "No life is taken out of sport. If someone is killed, it's because there was no other way around it or they were endangering the peace we established Underground."

In the dark, Levi's eyes narrowed. "I grew up Underground and there was hardly any peace,"

"Maybe not what you saw," Thalia said softly, knowing first hand how brutal people truly could be to one another. "But there was. Without the Syndicate holding their guns to the MP's heads, there would have been more murders and traffickings. Far more needless deaths. We can't stop every petty criminal, but we can cripple the worst ones." The ones who saw human life as a sport, as a means to benefit themselves completely, and as expendable.

Levi remained silent and Thalia was tired of talking. There was only so much she could say about her family, she couldn't paint them in a false bright light. They were killers. They had done terrible things. But it was for the betterment of their people.

The Don saw the Underground citizens as his responsibility, and it was one she knew he didn't take lightly. That was why he never did anything crass in regards to his personal revenge. He had both his family and his growing empire to protect. He had been a good man once. In a lifetime before her own.

Levi ran a hand down his face. "So your grandfather believes in social justice?" he asked, voice muffled by his hand.

Thalia's itching hand finally won the battle. She reached out and brushed strands of his hair off his forehead. His hand fell palm up beside his head. "Don't the Scouts? Isn't that why you fight, to liberate humanity from Titans?" Her fingers trailed down the sharp ridges of his cheekbone.

He leaned into her palm, surprising her. "I can't argue with that sound logic," he drawled. "But I suppose you're right. We're fighting a similar fight on two different fronts. We're risking our lives to save humanity from a prevalent threat. You're scheming to save humanity from itself. Which is a fight I think Erwin has been waging for many years,"

Erwin Smith was a book Thalia couldn't read. She doubted she would ever be able to. His exterior was carefully crafted by the forges of politics, one of the hottest fires of them all. She had respect for him, even if he did work her to the bone.

Thalia shifted to her stomach, wincing at the dull throb lacing through her joints. Draping her forearm on his chest, she propped her chin up on her arm and met his shifting gaze.

She had done it. Against the pounding of her heart and the doubts of her mind she had been...vulnerable to a degree. She still didn't know how she felt, but heavy was a right way to describe it. Light wasn't it either, but a mix in between. Contentment.

Levi brushed a strand of hair out caught in her lashes. Thalia stilled at the affectionate gesture. Rarely did he show any form of affection, and none this obvious. He barely tolerated her brief gestures of physical contact in the past let alone allowing her to lay on his chest like this. It was beyond out of character.

The softening of the hard contours of his face made the hairs on her neck stand on edge and her thighs tense.

"You've been on edge lately," he said, brushing another strand of hair from her lashes.

"Nothing escapes your notice, does it?" she asked, shifting more on top of him, curious as to what his new limit would be. She tilted her head onto the space between his shoulder and chest, her fingers brushing the nap of his neck.

His hand fell to her waist, holding her, the other still by his head. "I'd be a shitty captain if I didn't notice one of my men acting strange,"

Thalia scowled. "Did you just call me one of your soldiers?"

An impatient sigh hissed between his teeth and his fingers curled into the soft skin between her hip bone and rib cage in annoyance. "I'd be an even shittier husband if I didn't notice my wife acting peculiarly. Tell me what's wrong."

Always so demanding and impatient. She had half a mind to roll off him and stare at the wall like the wives in her novels did, but she had no heart to argue.

She was on a roll with the whole vulnerability thing tonight, and even though she would rather go a month without blueprinting than spill her guts, she forced herself to speak. "Honestly, I don't know what's wrong. And I'm not just saying that," she rushed as Levi rolled his eyes. She settled her chest more firmly on his. "Life isn't exactly cut and dry. I'm transitioning. My family is all I've ever known."

"You need friends," he said and Thalia frowned.

For Thalia's whole life, she had just her family. She had playmates when she was a child, but they only played with her until their families discovered who her father was. And there had been the accident that tore her innocence away from her years before her mother's death. Thus, her expeditions for friends outside her family halted, and her apprenticeship took up most of her time when she grew older. Friends were never something she had ever needed.

But then Levi stormed his way into her life like a vulgar tornado and changed all that. Her heart did desire something more than just companionship with him.

Perhaps Levi was right, Thalia thought, curled on her side with Levi's chest pressing gently into her back and his breath tickling the nap of her neck. And she knew exactly where to look.

* * *

_AN: And here we go. Finals are approaching so I will have zero time to write for the next two weeks. I hope these satisfy! Please let me know your comments. Also, has anyone seen the new Frozen? Thoughts, feelings, opinions?_

_**Bookangel1624**__: Thank you! I hope their small progressions seem realistic :)_

_**Minerva Andromeda: **__I hope you're enjoying it thus far! Thank you, I've loved developing it. Like I've said before, she's morally gray which makes her backstory even more of a challenge to create. I've noticed a lot of fanfics just kinda state their background but it has nothing to do with the actual plot….so I hope to provide some change to that :) Humans are such fickle beings! _

_Thank you again, God bless!_


	19. Nineteen

_Bad Things - Rayland Baxter_

* * *

"_Of Past and Family."_

* * *

Thalia blew a wisp of breath between her chapped lips as she made her way down Main Street. The sound of Petra giggling and Kaine's bell like laughter behind her grated on her taut nerves. Eren walked beside her silently, seemingly petrified to speak. Though, Thalia couldn't blame him.

She was in a particularly sour mood that morning after being awoken by Levi earlier than normal. Sunday was the day she allowed herself to sleep an extra hour and having that privilege taken away made a scowl press into her face all morning.

And in addition to that, Kaine was flirting up a storm with a certain doe eyed soldier. She had half a mind to snap at them to shut up but bit her tongue. She would scold him before he left for home that night. For now she would focus on the task at hand - going to the blacksmith's forge.

Thalia was in need of additional parts from the local blacksmith for the ODM gear and had Kaine come along as her pack mule. What she hadn't anticipated was her brother's idea of bringing not only Petra but also Eren along for the outing as well. She was surprised Erwin had allowed Eren off the compound, given his unpredictable abilities of Titan shifting in moments of aggression.

After turning into a silent alleyway, the dingy shop came into view and Thalia's stomach clenched. It's slated, soot covered roof was stark and its rotting window shutters gently clacked against the peeling decorative siding. Intense heat radiated off the brick walls as they neared and the shop, rhythmic pounding of a hammer against metal breaking the still morning.

"Mind your footing," Thalia said. Carefully, she walked around bits of broken metal that lay gleaming in the dew covered grass to the front of the caving building. She gently rapped gloved knuckles against the charred door and pushed it open. Heat rushed to her rosy cheeks.

The heavy pounding stopped as Thalia stepped into the brick room. She felt Kaine move beside her as she strode to greet the blacksmith.

The man bent over the glowing forge straightened. He carefully placed his hammer down and wiped his hands on his leather apron.

"Miss Wolfstien," he said, extending his hand. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" His emerald eyes swept over the forest green cloak draped over her shoulders and her new companions lingering behind her.

Thalia took his blackened hand and resisted grimacing when he shook her hand in a bone crushing grip. "I sent in an order to your wife last week," she said, pulling back her throbbing hand. Griffon Harvey clapped Kaine on his suit clad shoulder, leaving soot behind in the fine fibers. "She said it would be ready today."

Griffon ran his hand over his shaved head and tucked his hands under his lanky, but wiry, arms. "I see. I must have forgotten, I apologize." He turned and rounded the chimney that took up the middle of the room. He rose his voice as he continued speaking. "Things have been difficult to manage since Nathanial's passing. We're still adjusting, even though it's been so many years. Leon's only fifteen so he does what he can, but the boy wonders,"

At the mention of Griffon's eldest son, Thalia felt Kaine's eyes pierce through her skin and bones to her core. She didn't shift under the heavy weight and kept her attention on the flickering flames inside the massive fireplace. "I completely understand, Mister Harvey." She should have told Eren and Petra to remain outside. She didn't anticipate an argument to break out, but one couldn't be too cautious with grieving parents.

Griffon came back around carrying two burlap sacks on his sturdy shoulders. He handed one off to Kaine and the other to Eren, who grunted under the weight of the equipment safely stowed inside.

Griffon didn't meet Thalia's gaze as he tucked his hands in his apron pockets. "I checked in the books, it seems as though you paid upfront. A tad too much, however. I'll have Leon give you what we owe in the morning,"

Thalia shook her head and looped her fingers through her brace's straps. "Think of it as an early Yuel's Day gift. Or Thanks Day gift. Whichever you choose."

His eyes widened, the weathered skin creasing into crows feet like Levi's. "Ma'am, that is far too much,"

Kaine placed a firm hand on Griffon's shoulder. "We insist." He squeezed gently and let his hand fall.

Griffon seemed to roll the idea in his head for a moment before slowly tipping his chin down. "My family thanks you. Please, let me know if there is anything else we can do for you,"

Thalia tried to smile gently but it felt forced and came out more of a grimace. "We will." She nodded to the two Scouts who were giving her curious looks and began to follow them out when Griffon said, "Congratulations on your recent marriage. He's a lucky man."

Thalia paused at the door, her hand gripping the handle tightly. She stared at the dry, cracked ground beneath her boots and her teeth grounded together. "Thank you, Mister Harvey." And with that, she pulled the door shut.

Thalia could practically feel Kaine's agitation radiate off his body as the group began the trek to where they had tied off their horses. Eren and Petra remained silent as the siblings stewed in thought.

However, almost as though the Saints were punishing Thalia, Leon Harvey came jogging around the corner of the alleyway just as the group was to turn. He stopped cold in his tracks. His blonde hair fell into his bright blue eyes that narrowed at the sight of Thalia standing tall before him. Hair and eyes that were the same color and length of his brother's when Thalia flicked her wrist and ended the boy's young life.

Her heart cinched.

After a tense moment, Kaine pushed past the boy, ruffling his hair and murmuring something under his breath. Most likely an apology.

Leon slid past Thalia, a curse falling from his lips as he did so, and dashed to his father's shop, slamming the door and making the windows shutter.

Thalia stood there a moment longer, heart thrashing and chest aching. She deserved the curse Leon cast upon her. Deserved every curse she knew the family said after her name.

The trekk back to the compound was made in tense silence. Their horses' hooves beating against the solid ground were the only sources of noise up the hillside to the headquarters. Not even the sunlight streaming through the bare tree branches lightened Thalia's mood.

Kaine was upset, Thalia could tell that much by the rising of his shoulders to his ears and the hollowness of his voice as he murmured to his horse. Petra had try to make conversation with him, but gave up after he gave simple responses with strained smiles.

It was Eren who asked the question that must have been burning inside of him after a long stretch of silence. "Why did that boy look at you like that?"

Kaine cut Thalia a glance. Thalia thinned her lips and curled her fingers tightly around the leather reigns. She could lie. She could make up a story so that Eren and Petra would keep looking at her as they always had. Or she could be somewhat transparent and allow fragments of the truth to slip through her tight walls.

"The family business isn't exactly kind," she said carefully, unsure of what to say. She ran a hand through her mare's maine. "Nathaniel got caught up in a scheme that clashed with them. He died because of it. However, it was a death my family doesn't take lightly."

Petra took in a sharp intake of breath. "The poor boy," she said. Though Thalia didn't know how much Petra was aware of when it came to the Wolfstien business, she had her suspicions Kaine had told her enough during his short stay.

He always had been far too trusting.

Eren turned to Thalia, unnerving boldness pulling his spine straight. "So he had to die because he got in the way? What could have been so important?"

"Eren," Petra warned.

"Business's are always messy," Kaine said smoothly. "Especially ones run underground. Do you know much of the Underground City?"

Eren shook his head. His bright eyes slid between the siblings, lingering on Thalia who was keeping her focus on the leaf covered path.

Kaine leaned forward in the saddle and ran his gloved fingers through his mare's maine. "It's unkind down there. Plenty of poverty and crime running rampant. To have anything successful, you have to be willing to play your cards wisely,"

"What business does your father run?" Eren asked.

"It's a betting hall," Thalia said, cutting off Kaine's completely honest answer. "A tavern where the wealthy come and gamble their fortunes away on their own accord. It's illegal, of course, which makes the business risky." She stared hard at Kaine, daring him to rebuke her explanation. He just sat back in his saddle, blue eyes narrowing and handsome face darkening. He was far too trusting.

Eren thinned his lips, studying the saddle horn his hands gripped. "I understand," he said simply.

Thalia watched the gears turning in his head out of the corner of her eye. As clever as he may be, she knew he wasn't _that_ clever just by observing him train for the past few weeks. He was resourceful but lacked some brain cells to fully connect the dots between a betting ring for the wealthy and being located underground. The word _mafia_ would never cross his mind.

However, Petra was that clever, and Thalia dreaded the whispers that would surely bounce off the castle walls in the oncoming days. The Scouts had been kept in the dark about her family to keep their presence as unknown as possible. She wondered how much longer it would be before someone spilled something and potentially got themselves killed for it.

* * *

The castle spires loomed over the dead tree branches as the group trotted up the hillside.

Immediately as they entered the glade, a sharp whistle rang out. Thalia sharply turned her head toward the noise. Levi leaned against a doorframe of one of the side entrances, his cloak around his shoulders and arms crossed. His ODM gear hung on his hips, the metal gleaming in the sunlight.

He jerked his head toward the woods, a signal to Petra and Eren to get their gear and join the others on the training grounds.

Swiftly, the two dismounted their steeds and handed off the reins to a scrawny stable boy. "Do you need us to carry the parts?" Petra asked, eyes lingering on Kaine.

Thalia took notice of Eren shifting his weight from one foot to another and the anxious darting of eyes from Levi to the woods. "No, I can get my husband to help," she said. Revenge for waking her early. She waved a hand at Levi and he pushed off the frame.

Petra hesitated. "All right." she said after a moment. "Thank you, ma'am." She smiled softly at the siblings and walked briskly to catch up with Eren as they headed to get their gear. They saluted to Levi as they passed by the scowling captain.

Kaine swung off his mare and Thalia followed suit. Instead of handing off her horse, she slowly guided the gentle beast into the stables. "Will you please help my brother get the parts inside?" she called, not bothering to listen to his response as she disappeared into the shadows of the stable.

The raw scent of straw mixed with manure hit her nostrils as she lead the mare into the stall. Slowly, she unbridled the chestnut mare. She ran her hand down the mare's long nose soothingly.

The beast shook her mighty head and snorted in response. Its large, dark eyes bore into Thalia's gray ones as though she could read Thalia's whirling thoughts.

Thalia stroked the mare's nose for a few moments longer before allowing the stable boy to do his work. She had never learned how to properly rub down her horse, seeing as how there was no need to learn underground, and she barely left the town to begin with. Perhaps she would learn while the soldiers were on their expedition. Quickly, she pushed thoughts of the grounds being empty away.

She blinked rapidly as she exited the dim barn, scanning the glade for her brother. She pulled off her gloves, stuffing them in her back pocket and flexed her fingers, welcoming the warmer afternoon air.

Thalia spied Kaine speaking to Levi under the archway of the door they had gone through and her stomach clenched. As she crossed the brown grass, she hoped Levi wouldn't say anything childish to her younger brother. As tough as Kaine was, his heart was still tender. However, judging from Kaine's easy smile and Levi's relaxed shoulders, she had little reason to worry.

Instinctively, without breaking conversation, Kaine stretched his arm out for Thalia's shoulders and curled it around her. He never once allowed his anger or frustration, no matter how great, keep him from showing affection to the ones he cared about. A lesson Thalia was still learning.

"So you plan to leave in two weeks?" Kaine asked. Thalia stiffened against him.

Levi nodded, shifting his gaze between the two siblings. "Given if all goes well and the new recruits don't shit themselves, it should be two weeks from today."

Thalia's fingers went to her ring, spinning it around and around. "When do they arrive?" she asked.

"Tomorrow morning,"

"Not much time for them to learn," Kaine said, squeezing Thalia's shoulders before letting his arm fall. Thalia tilted her chin up at him to speak but bit her tongue when she saw the quivering muscle under his right eye.

He was upset about something. And it wasn't directed at her.

Levi shrugged his shoulders, cooly indifferent. "They learn quickly,"

A sharp crack followed by angered shouts of the Scouts echoed from the training woods. A sigh dragged Levi's shoulders down and he squeezed his eyes shut. "Duty calls," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose as he took off for the rising voices. His ring briefly caught the light as he played with the edge of one of the blades in its holder.

Thalia watched him leave, his cloak snapping behind his knees. Kaine shifted beside her.

"What's bothering you?" she asked. Petra and Eren ran up beside Levi, their heavy gear strapped to their wastes. The girl saying something and Levi shook his head, replying curtly.

Kaine moved to lean his shoulder on the wall opposite of her, spine straight and arms crossed. Defensive. He rarely stood that way.

He popped his neck. "I assume you're not talking about the blacksmith incident," he said, bright voice unusually low. When she didn't reply, he said, "Sometimes I forget that you and Levi didn't marry out of love."

Levi and his subordinates disappeared in the shadows of the treeline, the leaves engulfing their forms. "It was more or less a business transaction." She said. Something in her chest tugged and her fingers spun her ring. Round and round and round her finger it went. Limitless. Unending.

"Which is why," he said, a heavy sigh escaping his chest, "him having previous relations shouldn't make me want to sic Vince on him. But it does."

Her spinning stopped and a sharp pang lanced from her chest to the depths of her stomach, curling around her intestines painfully. "What makes you think he had a previous relationship?" But she suspected the answer. She just didn't want to think it were true.

Kaine tilted his head down to look at her and she met his eyes. Gentle. Safe. As blue as the sky that had once been hidden from them as children. Worry lines were already pressing into the edges of his mouth, the between the corners of his eyes, and in the planes of his forehead.

She wished to wipe those lines away.

"Ulou said something to me," he said and Thalia made a face. "He told me not to bother pursuing Petra because she was still healing from a heartbreak. That the man she liked chose a different woman. Now how many men here were recently married?"

A sour tang filled Thalia's mouth and she schooled her features. "One." She continued twisting her wedding band. Round and round and round.

Black hair fell into Kaine's eyes as he tilted his head, the strands falling between his brows. "One." He repeated softly, as though admitting it would shatter her.

Thalia looked back at the woods, where her husband had just disappeared into with Petra and Eren. The shouting had stopped. She wondered what Levi had done to quell it. One scowl from him had his company flinching back in submission, though not in fear. They were so loyal to their captain, they craved his praise almost as much as she craved his touch.

And though her chest tightened and her toes curled in her boots and her fingers moved, she could not bring herself to be jealous of Petra. Because jealousy meant fear. And Thalia did not fear petty things such as that. But she did not deny the peculiar pain in her stomach.

"I'm with him. For better or for worse." The ring felt even colder than usual against her skin.

Kaine eyed her fingers play with the wedding band. His lips thinned. "Perhaps it was for worse,"

Thalia stopped the spinning and placed a gentle hand on his arm. "Levi is a good man, Kaine. You don't need to worry." She searched his face.

The muscle under his eye ticked again. "He used to be one of our informants. I looked into him after you two got engaged. He ran his own gang for a while, did you know that?"

Thalia hesitated. "I didn't." She hardly knew anything about her friend and she wanted to kick herself for it. The whole point of her even pursuing him was because she was curious about his past.A fine detective she made.

A shot of anxiety ran through her blood and she swallowed harshly. She was a fool. The fact that Kaine was raising his hackles pushed her nerves farther on edge.

Kaine ran his long fingers through his hair, sighing slowly. He blinked up at the sky, squinting. "Vince was worried about this marriage and I wasn't." He shot her a gentle grin, just a quirk of the lips and a softening of his eyes. "Now you have your baby brother uncertain about your husband,"

"Believe me, that wasn't my intention," Thalia murmured hand falling to her side. She barely bothered to ask Levi anything about himself. Not even during their quiet moments in the shop had she inquired about his life Underground. She had grown complacent, waiting for him to speak while she lay her soul bare.

She had grown lazy. Uncertain to ask the wrong thing and make him walk away.

Thalia then bumped her shoulder against Kaine's, pulling his attention from the cloudless sky. "Try not to get too emotionally involved with Petra. Scouting is a risky profession, and our business even more complicated."

His face hardened. "I know." He pushed his hands in the pockets of his suit pants. "I should leave soon if I want to make my inn reservation in time."

But Thalia wasn't finished yet. "Did you tell her about the family?"

He hesitated and Thalia knew. She resisted the urge to smack him upside the head, or throttle him, she couldn't decide. A shot of adrenaline set her heart pounding. Her fingers went back to her ring.

"She had practically already had it figured out," Kaine pushed his hair back with his hands.

Thalia shot him a sharp look. Her brows creased and her mouth hardened. "What did you tell her?" If he said _anything_ about her family plotting to kill the King, she would be silenced and he punished. There would be nothing Thalia could do to stop it.

Kaine stared at the forest where Petra was most likely flying through the towering branches. His spine curled a fraction. "I told her we had a betting ring, like you told Eren. But I also said we do jobs for the wealthy. She pieced the crime syndicate part together herself,"

"But you didn't tell her about our current job?" Thalia pressed.

"_Saints_, Lia, no." Kaine straightened, his crystal blue eyes darkening as he gave her a look. "I would never betray the family like that,"

Thalia held up her hands to quell the storm bubbling beneath his skin. Her own electricity dampened. "I don't doubt your word but I had to know. If Father or the Don found out, misfortune would plague this military sect far more than it already does,"

The lightning crackling in his eyes dimmed. He let his head fall to the side, resting his temple on the cold stone archway. "I'm well aware of what they would do."

Long shadows started to creep to their feet. Thalia watched the lines for a moment, unsure of what to say. Kaine was not a boy of shadow, he never had been. He was not built for this life. A life of running a betting ring, perhaps, but not this type of deceit. Not the constant lying and death nipping at their heels.

Thalia was barely holding on to the will to push forward with it. But she had to. If she didn't who would help finish this fight?

"I wish you could love her, Kaine." Thalia said gently. He snorted and she blinked slowly, crossing her arms over her chest. "And you can love her. But not the way you want to, and you know that. Not a Scout."

"You got your Scout," he said, though not bitterly.

Thalia glanced at her ring on her hand, her fingers peeking through the crook of her arm. "And I live with the fact that he could die on Thanks Day." She didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to think of it, but it was the truth. Hard and cold, but true. He could die before they were even married a month and for the first time in years, it gripped her in heart stuttering fear.

Kaine's arms found her shoulders and she let him curl them around them as though she were glass. She stood firm and proud, her chin steady and mouth straight. He was light and goodness, though he tried to put on a dark face like her and Vincent. His tenderness and whimsical ideals would always keep his head in the clouds, and that was all right.

In a world where sorrow and misfortune was the norm, the need for daydreamers was crucial. And Thalia would do anything in her power to keep his head high and eyes lifted to the endless sky.

* * *

_AN: The holidays are quite crazy! So much has happened this break, but so much good. I hope everyone is having a safe time with their family and friends during this holiday season. Prayers for all of you!_

_**Hifivebuddy: **__pushing and pulling those two apart are quite honestly a lot of fun. Yes, she does have a bit of a warped sense of justice, doesn't she? ;)_

_**Minerva Andromeda: **__Thank you so much for reviewing! I remember reading your comment on my way back to my car after a long study session with some friends, and it truly put a big smile on my face :)_

_**Jerzu: **__You are a saint, darling _

_**Thebeccac: **__Again, your comment was one I read after studying for finals (God rest our souls) and it melted my heart. Truly, your words are so kind and uplifting! I wish you all the best for university! Never feel shy to to PM me if you need someone to lament to, because I totally understand. _

_**Valen Goncalvez: **__Thank you, darling! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)_

_This chapter was less Levi/Lia focused but those moments are coming, I promise. If anyone is interested, ya girl has a tumblr account! I go by erzzaberry (Ray), feel free to follow! _


	20. Twenty

_Language - Tori Kelly_

* * *

"_Hips Against Hip."_

* * *

Thalia didn't bother knocking on the door as she turned the knob, pushing it open wide with her hip as she held the mugs of tea (coffee for her) comfortably by the stems. She tapped the door shut with the heel of her boot.

Levi looked up from his work, spine still curled and hair flat against his scalp, as though he had brushed his hands down it rhythmically. His cravat was gone and his jacket neatly hung on the wall behind his chair on a peg. He was disheveled in the most systematic way possible.

Thalia crossed the wooden floor briskly, taking in the simple office. A shelf lined the wall to her right and a worn settee on the left. A closed window filled the wall behind Levi, the curtains drawn tight to keep the moonlight out. Several candles sat on the low table in front of the settee and one more on Levi's parchment filled desk.

Thalia placed the mug down in front of him with a thunk, careful to avoid setting it on a piece of paper. He was neurotic enough to get upset at her for something as simple as that.

He stared at the steam curling up from the porcelain. He raised a brow in question. She ignored the look and rounded to the settee, curling her legs beside her awkwardly. "I thought you might like something to drink," she gestured with her mug.

Carefully, Levi grasped the cup at the rim and took a slow sip. "You brewed it a bit long,"

Annoyance shot through Thalia's system. She wrapped her long fingers around her drink, the heat seeping through her thin skin to her bones. "My deepest apologies," she said into her coffee.

Levi took another sip. His eyes didn't leave her curled from pressed against the settee arm. Thalia couldn't help but feel as though he knew why she was here. It was the first time she had even been in his office since moving in. It was out of her character. And she rarely brought him tea, even when it was just them back home. Ida always did that.

Her heart ached. Ida. Fern. Two weeks had never felt so long to her before, even when she was writhing in pain during the winter months.

Thalia's heart picked up speed and she took another sip, this time to obscure Levi's studying gaze. "Kaine left after dinner," she said after a second drink.

Levi hummed into his mug. "Will he reach the Underground tonight?"

"He's going to visit Pops and Nonna tonight and leave early in the morning." The elderly couple were thrilled to host Kaine for the night. His soft attitude soothed every ache and pain their bodies held. "He'll be home in two days' time."

Levi turned the page of a document, the soft whisper soothing Thalia's dancing nerves. "I believe the squad enjoyed his presence during their training simulation. They enjoy showing off to civilians." A lace of pride hummed under the words despite the frown creasing his brow as he read the document. Thalia knew Levi took care of his squad like a parent to a child, pushing them to their max to prove to themselves that they were capable of doing the impossible.

"He enjoyed watching. Especially seeing Petra in action. He's quite fond of her," she said, watching him carefully. The crease between his brows deepened.

Thalia settled the mug in her lap, confirmation flowing through her veins and settling in her stomach. Her ring pressed into her finger like ice.

Levi muttered under his breath, taking another swig of tea. "The two are rather close aren't they?" His lips thinned and his hair fell over his eyes as he bowed his head, hiding them from her scrutinizing gaze.

Thalia's hands shook and she tightened her hold around the mug. Saints, she was going to lose her nerve. She could just let the conversation drop, brush a kiss to his cheek and bid him goodnight to sleep by herself.

Alone.

But an itch nestled deeply inside her skin, begging to be scratched. And she had to scratch it or she would drive herself mad by turning possibilities over and over in her brain until she couldn't tell up from down.

She steeled her resolve by tilting her chin up a fraction. "Kaine told me something interesting this afternoon."

Levi hummed again, picking up his pen and signing off on something. Thalia stifled a sigh and pressed on. "He said Ulou warned him not to pursue Petra because the man she held feelings for had married someone else not long ago." Something akin to satisfaction warmed her guts when he froze mid-turn of a paper. "We both know who that is."

Gray met gray as his eyes lifted to hers.

Thalia expected something similar to guilt or shame to pull at his features. Instead there was dismay. The crease in his brow had lessened and his mouth tightened. His fingers curled tightly around his pen and the shadows dusting the curve of his eyes seemed to only darken in shade.

Thalia's toes curled in her boots. "Did you have relations with her?"

Levi opened his mouth then closed it. Turmoil stormed behind his steely eyes but his face remained smooth. "Yes."

The word was soft, tentative, and uncertain all at once. And it cut Thalia to the core. The single word sliced her barely beating wings to the bone, finally crippling her.

The fire that wanted to rage under her skin was doused by the cold realization of the meaning behind that one word. "I see." She said simply. She didn't know what else she could say.

She asked for this. She knew the answer. But hearing it confirmed from his own lips made the wiggling of her guts almost unbearable.

Levi set his pen down slowly. "But it doesn't matter. You're my wife and my loyalties are to you." He repeated what he told her on their wedding night.

His initial hesitation to answer her question if he had feelings for another should have given it all away that night. She just didn't want to believe it. Because that would mean she had to have cared about his answer. She thought she didn't. She wouldn't. But she couldn't ignore the shaking of her hands as she tried to hold them steady or her inability to look at him.

To see the regret in his face.

"Is that all I am to you? Just your wife?" she asked, words much steadier than she felt. "Well please, don't let that _title_ get in the way."

His brows lowered and his eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?" The candlelight sharpened his narrow face ghoulishly.

Thalia took a quick sip of lukewarm coffee, focusing on the heat seeping through her ribcage to her stomach and settled a passive gaze on him. "If she made you happy, then by all means, don't let me be in the way." Her voice had gone flat as she tried to steady her thrashing emotions inside her body. They raged in a swirl of hurt, satisfaction, acceptance, and hate thundering beneath her skin in a deadly cloud.

She meant what she said. She refused to be the jealous wife in a loveless marriage. She refused to hold him captive in this cage with her. If he wanted to be free, then so be it.

And though her wings bled, she would let them bleed for him.

Levi shook his head, several emotions passing over his face like a storm but Thalia was done. She had done this to herself and she needed to leave. To get away from him. The ribbon, her brother, the whole damn coupe was making her want to pull her hair out by the roots and scream until her throat bled.

She abruptly stood, shocking her stiff legs into motion and had her fingers wrapped around the doorknob when Levi said, in a voice so soft that she almost didn't hear, "She wasn't you."

Thalia froze. Her heart pounded in her throat and she was certain he could hear it. She heard his chair scrape against the floor. His boots shook under him as he rounded his desk.

Slowly, she twisted her torso to face him. He leaned the backs of his thighs against his desk and had his arms crossed over his chest. His shoulders were curved ever so slightly and his chin was lowered. The dark circles that rimmed his eyes seemed even more purple and even more sunken in.

Had he always looked that weary?

Something in her chest shifted. She fully turned to face him with her back pressed to the door.

"What are you telling me, Levi?" she asked softly.

He shrugged his shoulders, eyes boring into her own, seeing clearly through her crumbling walls. "Petra wasn't you."

The thing in her chest shifted again and her fingers curled into her palms. His words rang and bounced and danced in her skull. Her teeth nawed on the inside of her mouth, pulling at the flesh anxiously. "What does that mean?"

Levi pushed his palms behind him, his fingers curling around the lip of his desk. His face softened a fraction. "It means she wasn't who I wanted to be with,"

Now she understood. That _thing_ in her chest shifted against her rips and lungs, pulling on the organ strangely. A weight was both simultaneously lifted from her shoulders and settled on.

She didn't need a heartfelt confession. That wasn't them. But by the way his abrasive edges smoothed and his fingers remained still, she understood his silent admittance.

Thalia allowed her feet to carry her a breath away from him. He tilted his chin up a fraction to look at her in the eye. But still he made no effort to touch her. A piece of her flickering soul sank.

She tilted her head. "Why don't you ever touch me?"

He seemed taken aback by her question. His eyes widened. Then, crows' feet creased the sharp edges and the tough corner of his mouth quivered. "Would you believe me if I said I'm nervous?"

Thalia bit back a bark of laughter. Her lips thinned in an effort to keep her smile from breaking her solemn composure. "I would never believe such a lie." But that was okay.

Five minutes ago, her wings had been sliced to the bone and her heart fully shattered, shards cutting her stomach to bloody strips.

But now, she felt the skin knitting together and her wings fluttering ever so slightly in anticipation.

Her fingers found his, lacing through the curves of his knuckles until her palm was settled onto his. Her hand was a little larger than his and his skin was cracked. She felt a scar beneath her touch, a thin line along the fleshy part between his thumb and palm.

His ring wasn't cold against her skin.

She allowed herself to lean into him. She inhaled in his scent of ivory soap and sweat, leaning her head on his shoulder.

His fingers hovered above her before timidly landing on her hip. Thalia felt her lips twist into an uncertain smile and she pressed her face into the crook of his shoulder. This was enough, she swore.

It was enough.

And Petra was not someone Thalia would hold animosity towards. She refused to unroot the sapling of something that could grow into something sustaining over something so childish.

She wanted to kick herself of five minutes ago.

"I'm not a good person, Levi," Thalia said into his white shirt. "I've taken lives." A final test of his loyalty.

Levi's fingers curled through the loops of her pants, pulling her hips against his. "I used to be a thug in the Underground." His chin brushed her shoulder as he spoke. "I've done my own fair share of killing."

Another piece fell into place. Another stroke of the brush.

Thalia pressed her body further into his and he tightened his hold, if that was possible.

They were monsters in the castle of heroes. But how many monsters roamed these corridors? Another question filled an empty slot in Thalia's brain.

Later. She would think about that later. For now, in this rare moment in time, she would breathe silently in the arms of her husband.

* * *

_AN: Life is really wanting to slam us, huh? Right now I'm social distancing with the rest of my family (seriously, stay home you guys.) so I finally edited this piece. I hope to update some more soon! Stay safe, you guys. I love you all!_


	21. Twenty-One

Fever by Peggy Lee

* * *

"_Moonlight."_

* * *

Thalia decided she quite liked kissing Levi. The steady beat of his heart under the pads of her calloused fingertips and the rise and fall of his chest against hers made her mind oddly silent. She allowed herself to sink into the gentle pull of her innocent desires. Permitting them to wash over her cracking heart in the hope it holds together.

His mouth was uncertain against hers. His hands timid. But his breath was steady. His pulse a strong, steady thrum. For such a crude man, he was heartbreakingly gentle with her as they clumsily spoiled one another with affection.

She buried her face in his bare shoulder and kissed the scarred, pale skin. He cradled the back of her neck gently, letting her head fall back as he pressed gentle kisses to her forehead and temple, murmuring softly.

The pull on her fragile heart strengthened, tugging her beneath the waves of her emotions and submerging her fully until all she could do was to breathe them. The silence in her head morphed into a steady buzz and she allowed herself to feel it. To feel _him._

The moon had reached its peak when they settled for the night. Thalia was wrapped in one of Levi's long sleeve shirts. She sat up with her shoulder against the headboard, her legs carefully folded beneath her.

Levi had his back to her, sitting on the edge of the bed facing the window. His back was curled as he rolled up the cuffs of his cotton pants. Many scars crossed his back. Some jagged with teeth like edges and others smooth lines. However, several stood out to her.

On either shoulder were thick, long lines that crossed down his back and disappeared under his arms to his chest. They were too wide for them to be caused by a blade or tree branch laceration.

They were from his ODM gear, she realized. Her heart sank.

Her palm pressed against his right shoulder blade. She felt him flinch beneath her touch. The scar was just as wide as her hand. It was rough and raised and discolored from the rest of his pale skin. It was fresh.

"Does your gear always rub your skin raw?" she asked, shifting closer to him.

"Usually," he grunted.

Ignoring his bitter mood, she traced her fingers along his back. He stilled under her touch. She ghosted her touch to the waistband of his pants. "Do your leg straps also damage the skin?"

He grunted again. He straightened his spine, the outline of his vertebrae disappearing from sight. He twisted to face her.

Thalia instead focused on his chest, where the rest of the irritated skin was. She didn't know if she could change how the weight was distributed, but she could try. If she had known when he brought the gear into the shop all those years ago, she would have found a way by now.

Levi turned fully, pushing himself between her thighs and forcing her on her back. She met his steady gaze with her own and though her heart had picked up pace, she was calm. She brushed her hands across his skin and cupped his cheek. "I'll try to find a way to adjust the gear," she said, brushing strands of damp hair from his eyes.

He kissed just under her eye and buried his face in the crook of her neck. Thalia lazily wrapped one leg around his waist and buried her fingers in his hair. "You need a haircut," she said, tugging at the long strands.

He grunted once more, replying by kissing her neck. Then, he sat up and pushed on her side gently. Following his lead, she shifted so that her head was on her pillow and he settled between legs once again, pressing his nose on her neck once more. His arms settled on either side of her head and rested his elbows above her shoulders.

Thalia refrained from speaking and allowed him to explore the newly found physical affection. She wasn't about to speak against his mouth pressed against her neck. She wrapped one leg on his waist and the other rest on his left calf, allowing herself to sink into the pressure of his stomach against hers and her chest meeting his with each breath.

He moved down to her clavicle. She turned her head and kissed his wrist, right where the long, curious scar ran.

The buzzing in her head grew. Her cheeks felt hot and his skin grew warm.

"Levi," she murmured against his scar.

He stopped, his nose pressed onto her sternum. "Ready to call it a night?" His voice was soft, a whisper in the dark.

She dragged her right leg up his side and around his waist. He pulled back to look down at her and she tilted her head to the side. "Only if you are,"

In the gray darkness, she saw his lips thin and the crows feet around his dark eyes deepen. Instead of replying, he kissed her squarely on the mouth and pressed harder into her abdomen.

An idea slipped into her mind. Instead of letting it simmer, she decided to act.

Pushing her hips against his, she rolled him over, straddling his hips and grinning devilishly at his wide eyes. "Okay?" She asked. The buzzing grew in her head, sliding forward to her forehead. She blinked down lazily. Wolfishly.

Levi dug his elbows in the mattress and met her halfway, kissing her firmly.

But despite the pleasure of her husband between her thighs and the comfort he wrapped her in, the cracks that spiderwebbed upon her heart still remained. The void in her chest did not fill as he rolled her on her back and made her softly sigh.

The buzzing in her head only temporarily filled the numbness in her skull.

But Thalia refused to fall into the deep, pitch black pit that her feet slipped against. No. Not tonight. She would not let go.

For now, she would listen to Levi murmur her name as though it were a prayer. Memorize the feeling of him move gently against her.

For now, this was enough.

* * *

_AN: I thought about pushing this to be later, but honestly, I thought like it fit. How far they go is up to you guys as the readers to draw up, not for me to always tell. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!_

_I love hearing from you guys, please tell me what you think :)_


	22. Twenty-Two

I See Fire by Celtic Woman

* * *

"_Crow and Wolf."_

* * *

The new recruits looked like children.

Well, technically, they _were_ children. But the obviousness of their youth was startling. From Thalia's viewpoint at the second story window, she could just make out the confident pull of their mouths and the prideful hold of their shoulders as they stood at attention in a straight line in the courtyard.

She let out a slow, calming breath. Shaking her head, she slipped away from the window. She passed by soldiers and officers, non sparing her a second glance as she confidently strode down the hall. The joints of her braces squeaked ever so slightly and she winced as the noise bounced off the rock. She would need to fix that tonight.

Without a moments' hesitation, Thalia twisted the knob to Levi's office and slipped in. She was surprised it was even unlocked, but was grateful all the same. One man's mistake was another's victory.

The room was empty. The curtains were drawn back to allow the sunlight to spill across the perfectly neat desk and spotless floor.

A pang filled her chest as she glided across the floor, braces squeaking softly. She _really_ needed to oil the hinges.

Studying the empty desk, Thalia bit the inside of her lip. Carefully, she hooked her fingers under the drawer knob and pulled.

To her relief and utter dismay, it opened soundlessly. Annoyance tightened her ribs. Was he honestly so careless as to leave his office unlocked and not secure his files?

It didn't take long to find the files. They were bundled neatly and tied off with a loose strand of cord. Her fingers carefully pulled the string off and she flipped open the first folder. The first name was neatly printed in bold black: _Mikasa Ackerman._ Height was 170 centimeters and was sixty-eight kilograms. Both parents were deceased.

Thalia's eyebrows rose. She resided at the Jager household in Shiganshina. Well, before it was destroyed by Titans, that is.

The familiar chill of the memory of the wall being breached slid down Thalia's spine. Never had she been gripped with so much bone numbing fear.

She flipped to the next cadet. _Armin Arlert. _He was also from Shiganshina. Parents deceased.

_Sasha Braus. _A farm girl. Family still alive.

_Connie Springer_. Same as Sasha.

_Jean Kirschtein. _Mother alive, father unknown. Trost District. Ah, that could be troublesome. Her family had a ring of men that were their eyes in that city. Which meant her family name could be known. Not commonly. One had to run in the wrong circles and Thalia doubted the boy would have heard of them if he had been at bootcamp since he was ten. But still. She would have to tread lightly.

Thalia kept flipping, eyes flying across pages and brain filing away any information she deemed important. Strengths, weaknesses, potential specialties the instructors thought the cadets would excel at. A flawless machine designed to power out soldiers who obeyed without hesitation.

_Christa Lenz. _Parents deceased and hailed a small water-back town in the plains.

Bingo.

Thalia memorized the physical description the documents listed. When she was confident she would be able to spot the girl in a crowd, she put the files away just as she found them and slipped into the hall silently.

Guilt weighed down her intestines but she shook it off by quickening her stride. Levi would be curious as to why she wanted to see the documents if she had asked him. She couldn't have told him even if she wanted to. The Don never said why he wanted Christa's name. Only that it was needed.

Was it double crossing? Technically. But when you wish to use a crow, you were bound to be tricked. The Scouts joined with a syndicate. Morality and good faith was hard to come by in their den.

* * *

_AN: Thalia's character is slowly becoming harder to write as she grows, which has been a very fun challenge! _

_**Feysandcats: **__Thank you so much! I am doing well, life has just been very busy as of late. I am fortunate to be working this summer. I hope you are also doing well!_

_**Lily Resh: **__I find it sweet that she's slightly taller than him. And my oh my, how observant you are ;)_

_**Moon Shiney: **__Thank you! I love YOU!_

_I hope everyone is safe and well. I am a firm believer that this site should be used as a means of escape from reality, so any comments i make about current events will be limited. Stay safe. In the words of my beautiful biochemistry professor, "Be kind. Go do some good in the world today."_


	23. Twenty-Three

Skyfall by Adele

* * *

"_Father Dearest."_

* * *

_Dear Father,_

_Roughly one hundred Scouts live in the castle. Among those are Captain Levi's elite squad. Eld Jinn (second in command), Oluo Bozado, Petra Ral, and Gunther Shultz. Their goal is to protect Eren Jaeger, the Titan boy. _

_In the three weeks that I have been here, I have made several discoveries. _

_One: There were two Titans held captive here and being experimented on by a woman named Hange Zoe. They were killed in the middle of the night. It was suspected someone within the military committed the act and I aided in the investigation. However, no one's equipment was used. None that were alive. I did a check of the equipment of those who were deceased and one had shown signs of recent usage. _

_Two: Eren is unable to control when he is able to transform into a Titan. Levi has confided in me that Eren is only able to shift when he has a set goal in mind and has inflected intentional, physical harm to himself. I have not witnessed this myself as they keep those experiments to the Special Operations Squad personnel only and my marital status does nothing to aid me into the meetings._

_Three: I have found Christa Lenz as requested. She is a slight, timid girl but I can sense she can pack a punch, much like Ida if she put her mind to it. She is closely watched by a girl named Ymir. One of the other recruits, Reiner Braun, appears to have an eye for her romantically. _

_The newly designed ODM gear shall be ready for Kenny at the end of the week, the same day the Scouts leave the Walls. I shall come home to deliver them myself as I want to display the long shot rifle I have created. _

_As I have stated in my previous letter, the Scouts are expected to be gone several days to reclaim Wall Maria. Their chance for success is slim at best. Eren will be their trump card when all else fails. I do not know where he will be located within the formation, Levi will not tell me and they cleverly have not kept any documents relating to it within his or Erwin's offices. _

_Something in the air has been suffocating. Erwin is keeping me here to work instead of letting me go to the shop. He is right to be wary of my presence, but keeping me so close will bite him soon enough._

_I am excited to see you so soon._

_Sincerely,_

_Thalia, Crow._


End file.
